ELI 



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ENGLISH 




M J. ROLFE 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap. Copyright No. 

Shelf....'K.^.5 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 



HINTS TO TEACHERS 



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WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt. D 




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SEP 25 1896 ) 



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NEW YORK 

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

1896 






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Copyright, 1896, by Harper & Brothers. 



All rights resetted. 



PREFACE 



In the Preface to the first volume of the " English Classics 
for School Reading '' I promised to prepare some *' Hints 
for Teachers " on the use of the books. These Hints were 
printed in a small pamphlet, two editions of which have 
been exhausted. In this third edition I have thought it well 
to expand the pamphlet into a little book, in which the 
Hints should be given in revised and enlarged form, with 
the addition of one or two other papers on the elementary 
study of English. 

In former editions of the Hints the teacher has been re- 
ferred to the books — the Tales of Chivalry and Tales from 
English History — iox the passages which the quoted notes 
explain or illustrate. I now give these passages with the 
notes, thus making the Hints complete in themselves, and 
also rendering the method and suggestions more intelligible 
to teachers who are unacquainted with the series. Whatever 
books for '' supplementary reading " or the elementary 
study of English they use, they may be interested in some 
of these results of the experience of a fellow-teacher — for 
such, it should be understood, they are. I suggest nothing 
to others which I have not thoroughly tested myself. More 
than forty years ago, with boys and girls eight or ten years 
old, in a country academy, and with no other material than 
was to be found in the school reading-books of the time, I 



iv PREFACE 

did such work as is described here. Some of those boys and 
girls, after they had become fathers and mothers, told me 
that nothing in their school training was of more enduring 
value and delight to them than those early lessons in litera- 
ture. All my teaching from that day to this, in high schools, 
summer schools (where the students were mostly teachers), 
private schools, and elsewhere, has been on the same lines, 
and hundreds of pupils have borne similar testimony to the 
results. That the method is the best possible I have not the 
presumption to imagine, but that it is good in its way I may 
venture to believe when I have such assurance of the fruit it 
has borne. 

The Hints are prefaced with a paper on '' The Grammar- 
school Course in English," written on that subject at the re- 
quest of the officers of the Massachusetts State Teachers' 
Association, and read at a meeting of that society in Boston 
in 1888, but not printed until now ; and short papers on " The 
Teaching of History" and on "The English Language" are 
added. In the Appendix I give a brief description of the 
books already issued in the series, with selections from the 
notes in the later volumes as further illustrations of the 
method. 

Cambridge, June 10, 1896. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

The Grammar-school Course in English .... i 
Hints for Teachers on the Use of the "English 

Classics for School Reading" 14 

Hints on Teaching History 50 

The English Language , .... 56 

Appendix 61 

Index . . , . 85 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

A CROMLECH 47 

CRUSADERS 55 

SEA-KINGS 60 

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY S;^ 

ABBOTSFORD 84 



THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 



THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL COURSE IN ENGLISH 

[portions of a paper read before the MASSACHUSETTS 
STATE teachers' ASSOCIATION, NOVEMBER 30, 1 888.] 



The grammar-school serves two purposes in our system 
of education. For a small minority of the pupils it is a step- 
ping stone to the high-school ; for the great majority it is 
what the high-school is for the minority, or the university for 
a select few out of that minority — the final stage in their 
school training. It is the high-school of the million, the 
university of the masses. In laying out its course of study 
the interests of the majority should be considered rather than 
those of the minority ; though, so far as the training in Eng- 
lish is concerned, it may well be the same for both classes 
of pupils. It should be the best possible course for those 
who are to finish their schooling here ; and this I believe 
will be found to be as good a course as any that might be 
specially arranged to lead up to the high-school work in 
English. 

What should this course be for boys and girls who are to 
have no further school training in their mother tongue ? It 
should certainly enable them to use that tongue correctly, if 
not aptly and gracefully — to speak, read, and write English 
well, if not very well. Some teachers may say that this is 



2 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

enough ; twenty-five years ago, very few would have thought 
of attempting anything more : but nowadays we are begin- 
ning to see that any school course in English should include 
some instruction in literature as well as in language — that 
boys and girls who have learned to read should be taught 
how to choose their reading after they leave school — trained 
to recognize what is good in literature, and to prefer it to 
what is poor or bad. They should have got in school at 
least a taste of good literature, enough to give them a taste 
for it which they can never lose in after-life. 

Some will say at the outset that this cannot be done in the 
grammar-school. But if it should be done, it can be done ; 
and that it should be done is indisputable. If children learn 
nothing else in school, they should learn how to use their own 
language. This is the key to the learning of all time, the 
instrumentality whereby all knowledge is shared and dis- 
tributed among men. It is, moreover, the only branch of a 
school education of which we may say that all the pupils will 
find all they have learned in it of positive practical use at all 
periods of their life. Beyond the merest elements, how much 
of the arithmetic learned in school is of real use to one pupil 
out of ten ? How much of it is remembered by the very large 
class who have no occasion to employ it in later life t Be- 
yond the great facts that could be taught in a few lessons, 
how much of the geography is remembered in after-years by 
the vast majority who have learned it in school 1 In travel- 
ling in Europe, and even in parts of our own country, one has 
to learn the geography all over again. I have to go to the 
gazetteer for hundreds of facts that I had to commit to 
memory in my school-days ; and if I want some of the same 
facts again six months later, the chances are that I shall 
have to go to the gazetteer again for them. I do not care 
to lumber up my memory with such knowledge when I know 



THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL COURSE IN ENGLISH 3 

where to find it if I have occasion to make some temporary 
use of it. And so with the minutiae of history, which are 
memorized so laboriously in school and forgotten so easily 
afterwards. It is only teachers and critical students of his- 
tory who remember them, or to whom they are of sufficient 
value or interest to justify any special effort to retain them 
in the memory. But all that we learn in the study of lan- 
guage, if it is taught aright, is of immediate and enduring 
value. Every new thing of beauty that we come to know in 
literature is a joy forever. Your schoolboys and schoolgirls 
after they have become fathers and mothers will testify to 
the truth of this. I am old enough to speak on this point 
from my own experience. I began teaching English forty 
years ago, and from the start I combined work in literature 
with that in language. I have met many of my pupils long 
after they had grown up and become settled in life ; and I 
have found them enjoying good books and training their 
children to the same habits and tastes. They tell me that 
of all the lessons they had in school these in English have 
been the most helpful, stimulating, and inspiring ever since. 

Whatever else, then, may have to be omitted, abridged, or 
treated superficially in the grammar-school, the course in the 
English language should not be so treated. If necessary, 
throw away half of the arithmetic or two-thirds of the geog- 
raphy, or both, and give the time thus saved to English. 
Even if history, as generally studied, is cut down somewhat, 
the loss can be more than made good by judicious selections 
of historical matter, both prose and verse, for a part of the 
study in literature. 

As to the details of the course little can be said in a brief 
paper like this. In the education in speaking English I am 
inclined to think that much may be done by insisting on 
the clear and accurate use of language in recitations in all 



4 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

branches, and not merely in English, especially when the 
pupil has to give the answer in his own words. Many teach- 
ers who insist on precision in definitions, rules, and princi- 
ples, and other formal statements, allow a pupil to use loose 
and slovenly English in explaining or illustrating things in 
his own way. Every such answer should be a practical exer- 
cise in the correct and appropriate use of language. 

In writmg of an informal character (as distinguished from 
regular exercises in composition) on slate, blackboard, or 
paper, the same accuracy and propriety should be insisted 
upon — punctuation, the use of capitals, and the like not ex- 
cepted. Good English and attention to these minor matters 
should be required in all written examinations, whether faults 
and defects in this line are " marked " or not. 

Technical grammar should have a subordinate place in the 
course, being regarded solely as a means, not as an end. So 
far as it really helps to attain the results we are aiming at, 
let it be utilized, but no farther. Just how far it will be a 
help is a question on which good teachers will doubtless 
continue to disagree. For myself, I have no hesitation in 
taking my stand with those who believe that, so far as the 
training of children to correct habits in the use of English is 
concerned, technical grammar is of very little value or none 
at all. It may be a hindrance rather than a help. Prof. 
Whitney, one of our best American philologists, has put this 
matter well in the preface to his Essentials of English Gram- 
mar, After saying that " it should be a pervading element 
in the whole school and home training of the young to make 
them use their own tongue with accuracy and force," he adds 
that this drill " will not bear the intrusion of much formal 
grammar without being spoiled for its own ends. It is con- 
stant use and practice under never-failing watch and correc- 
tion that makes good writers and speakers ; the application 



THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL COURSE IN ENGLISH 5 

of direct authority is the most efficient corrective. Grammar 
has its part to contribute, but rather in the higher than in 
the lower stages of the work. One must be a somewhat re- 
flective user of language to amend even here and there a 
point by grammatical reasons ; and no one ever changed 
from a bad speaker to a good one by applying the rules of 
grammar to what he said." 

Technical grammar, it seems to me, should be studied to 
some extent in the grammar-school for other reasons than 
any direct influence it may be supposed to have upon the 
pupil's habits in the use of English. In the first place, much 
of its nomenclature has come to be a part of our common 
speech ; and terms like noun and verb, adjective and adverb, 
subject and predicate, should be understood by every well- 
informed person. But, what is more important, these tech- 
nicalities are convenient, if not indispensable, in ''language 
lessons," as distinguished from mere grammar lessons, espe- 
cially in the upper classes of the grammar-school. As Prof. 
Whitney says, " To teach English grammar to an English 
speaker is to take advantage of the fact that the pupil knows 
the facts of the language, in order to turn his attention to 
the underlying principles and relations, to the philosophy of 
language as illustrated in his own use of it, in a more effec- 
tive manner than is otherwise possible." There is a point, 
even in the grammar-school course, when a certain amount 
of this " philosophy of language " may be profitably taught 
in connection with exercises in writing English, and especially 
with the readings in literature. 

But, to my thinking, the main part of this teaching should 
be oral, or in the form of deductions from these exercises 
and readings. Many things can be taught in this way that 
are not found in even the larger school manuals of grammar, 
and which could not be learned so well from any text-book. 



6 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

The manual of grammar put into the hands of the pupil 
should not be larger than the smallest of the books recently 
prepared for common schools. Some of these are good in 
their way, but their treatment of some subjects might be 
materially improved. The ideal book of this small compass 
is yet to be written ; at least, I have not met with one which 
is quite to my own mind. Prof. Whitney's, to which I have 
referred, is too large for pupils of this grade ; but it will be 
helpful and suggestive to the teacher. 

Whatever of grammar is taught should be taught correctly, 
which is rarely done. The writers of " grammars " often — I 
might say, generally — know little of the history of the lan- 
guage, and teachers know less; and, what is more unfortu- 
nate, their ignorance incapacitates them for teaching well 
the little they do know. 

Some of the useless matter in these elementary grammars 
might well be replaced by an account of the more important 
constructions that have become obsolete in the last two or 
three hundred years, especially as many of these are still 
admissible in poetry. It would seem no more than reason- 
able that the only grammar the majority of people will ever 
study or refer to should cover the English of Shakespeare, 
Milton, and King James's Bible ; and to do this concisely 
would not require half a dozen pages out of several dozen 
that might to advantage be cleared of stuff that now cum- 
bers them. At any rate, oral instruction in this English 
should be included in the last year's course in every 
grammar-school. 

I may add that, in my opinion, the main facts in the his- 
tory of the English language should be taught in the latter 
part of the grammar-school course. An outline of these facts 
can be put into two small pages of good-sized type (as in a 
card that I myself once prepared for grammar-school use). 



THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL COURSE IN ENGLISH 7 

and an hour's familiar talk about the matter will make it 
perfectly intelligible to the boys and girls. 

The only difficulty with lessons of this kind, which might 
be introduced without interfering with anything that is now 
done, is the ignorance and consequent indifference of teach- 
ers — though the indifference is quite as much due to what 
they know as to what they do not know. The present gen- 
eration of teachers can never entirely recover from the effects 
of their own early training in English, with its excess of drill 
in technical grammar of the old inaccurate sort and of pars- 
ing in the old blundering way. 

The habits of years are not easily changed, even when there 
is an honest effort to get the better of them. Our education- 
al journals illustrate this in more ways than one. We often 
see in them attempts at teaching the history of words, for 
instance, which, though well meant, show either gross igno- 
rance of the facts or a weak grasp of them which seriously 
mars if it does not utterly spoil the lesson ; and, what is 
equally significant, the worst blunders in articles of this kind 
pass without being detected, or at least without being criti- 
cised, by the thousands of teachers who read them. 

* * =^ ♦ # # 

The study of English litcf-atiire was introduced into our 
high-schools some twenty-five years ago, and within a few 
years the " supplementary reading " so-called has been the 
entering wedge of its introduction into grammar-schools. An 
avalanche of books has followed the new movement, some of 
which are intended to give instruction in history, geography, 
and natural science, while others are designed to initiate 
the young folk in the study, or at least in the reading of 
literature properly so called. The former class of books 
doubtless answer a good purpose, but it is only with the 
latter that I have to deal here. What should these books 



8 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

be, and how should they be used ? The latter question 
seems to me by far the more important. It does not so 
much matter what the books are, if they are really good 
literature in every sense, — pure and wholesome in tone and 
influence as well as unexceptionable in style, — and if they 
are suited to the capacity of young readers and likely to 
interest them. Let teachers or supervisors choose what 
they will from the increasing supply of excellent material of 
this character. 

But, having selected our books, how shall we use them ? 
Some tell us that they should simply be read^ with no direct 
instruction beyond what is necessary to insure their being 
understood. This done, trust them to commend themselves 
to the child, and by "unconscious tuition" to cultivate his 
taste and to accomplish their higher mission in forming his 
character and guiding his life. Let the literature teach its 
own lessons, with little meddling on the part of the instructor. 
In addition to the books read in the school-room, let others 
well-chosen be put into the hands of the children for reading 
at home with no aid or comment from the teacher. 

Now, this is excellent in its way ; nothing, indeed, can be 
better as a part — we may say, the main part — of the course ; 
but it is not the study of literature, and I believe that a cer- 
tain amount of genuine study not only is no hindrance or 
drawback to this reading, but is a help and stimulus to it, 
while it has a material value of its own. If much reading of 
good books fosters a love for such literature, the careful 
study of select specimens of the same literature tends to 
confirm and increase that love by justifying it and pointing 
out new grounds for it which otherwise would not have been 
recognized or suspected. Ft changes the love from a vague 
sentiment to an intelligent appreciation — from an instinctive 
feeling for which one can give no clear reason to a pos- 



THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL COURSE IN ENGLISH 9 

itive assurance which he can explain and, if need be, 
defend. 

That such an intelligent appreciation of literature is de- 
sirable no one will deny — not even those who would limit 
the grammar-school course to mere reading. They will prob- 
ably say, as many others will at first, that, while something 
may be done in the high - school in the line I have sug- 
gested, it is impracticable in the grammar-school, where it is 
beyond the capacity of the pupils, or, if it were not, there is 
no time for it. If rightly taught, it is certainly not beyond 
the capacity of the upper classes in the grammar-school, and 
less time is required for it than might be supposed — and, as 
I have said, time can be got for work in this department by 
saving it in others where it is wasted. It is a common error 
in education to underrate the ability of the child. In most 
cases the difficulty is in the methods of teaching rather than 
in the matters to be taught. In this study of language and 
literature, I believe that almost everything that is now done 
in the high-school could be done in the grammar-school if 
attempted in the right way. Some things could be taught 
more successfully in the lower grade than in the higher, be- 
cause it is the natural time for learning them. The child 
masters them more easily than the adult, and the child of 
ten or twelve more easily than one of fourteen or fifteen. 

The chief aim in the study of literature in either school is 
the cultivation of taste. How much is actually accomplished 
in this direction in the average high-school course t A smat- 
tering of the elements of rhetoric, or what purports to be such, 
is got from one of the wretched text-books (there are only one 
or two out of twenty or more that are not wretched) ; and a 
few masterpieces of literature are read — carefully and faith- 
fully in certain respects, but seldom in a way that gives the 
pupil any critical power available after he leaves school. He 



lO THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

learns certain facts about what he reads, and comes to feel, 
or to imagine that he feels, something of its beauty and 
worth ; but he has not acquired the ability to judge of litera- 
ture in general. His taste is neither sensitive nor trust- 
worthy; he is in no sense whatever a critic. For myself, I 
am confident that more than this may and should be accom- 
plished in the grammar-school — that boys and girls in the 
upper classes at least can be taught to be critical in their 
estimate of what they read. They should be educated to this 
critical habit from their earliest introduction to the study of 
literature. It is a mistake to suppose that this training be- 
longs only to an advanced course. The earlier it begins, the 
better, if I may judge from my own experience as a teacher. 

How are these grammar-school children to be taught the 
elements of criticism ? Not by the use of text-books in 
rhetoric. Luckily there are none that profess to be suited 
for grammar-schools, as there are for high-schools. Oral 
teaching in connection with a part — a small part, if you 
choose — of the readings in literature is all that is necessary 
or desirable. A certain amount of good prose and poetry 
should be studied minutely and critically with reference to 
its style. A few teachers imagine that they do this now ; but 
they do it very imperfectly — though no worse than might be 
expected when they themselves either are untaught or have 
been mistaught. They know neither what to do, nor how to 
do it. They leave off where really useful work should begin. 
It is as if in an industrial school the names and construc- 
tion of the tools and machines were learned, but not how to 
handle and employ them. 

I have not time to explain at length what I believe can be 
done in teaching elementary criticism in a grammar-school. 
One or two of the possible lines of study may be briefly 
mentioned by way of illustration. 



THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL COURSE IN ENGLISH n 

In the reading of poetry, the essential principles and laws 
of versification may be taught, the pupil being made to deduce 
them for himself from the poem before him. As I have said 
elsewhere (see page 40 below), it is the right time for learning 
what children of larger growth often fail to acquire. The 
young child never errs in the rhythmical rendering of Mother 
Goose, that classic of the nursery ; but adults and teachers, 
and sometimes even college professors, who have lost the 
childish sensitiveness to the music of verse, will often blunder 
badly in reading or reciting Shakespeare. 

In elementary rhetoric^ the leading forms oi figurative lan- 
guage — the easiest and most interesting subject for a first 
lesson — can be taught to a child of ten in the same way — 
that is, from the examples he finds in the prose or verse he 
is reading. He uses in his daily talk similes and metaphors 
and personifications and apostrophes, and many another 
figure to which rhetoricians have given fearfully polysyllabic 
names — why should they bother him in books 1 The small 
boy who is so much given to similes that when he is hard up 
for a more specific comparison he will say *' like anything^'' 
making up in emphasis what the expression lacks in point 
and precision, will not be slow to recognize that sort of thing 
on the printed page if you call his attention to it. He will 
pick out the similes and metaphors as readily as the nouns 
and verbs, and explain the resemblances on which they are 
based as easily as the syntax of subject and predicate. 

And here most teachers will think the lesson may end — as 
it generally does in the high-school — but just here the valu- 
able instruction should begin. To note and name these 
figures soon becomes a merely mechanical process — much 
like " parsing," and as profitless ; but to see whether the 
figure is apt or expressive or beautiful, and to find out and 
explain why it is so, is a practical lesson in taste and criti- 



12 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

cism ; and this exercise should follow. Here the real pleas- 
ure as well as profit of the study begins ; for children, with 
very few exceptions even among the dunces, have keen poetic 
sensibility, and enjoy any exercise that appeals thereto. Call 
it out, allow it play, and you will be amazed at its quick and 
vigorous development. Let it lie dormant or check its 
natural growth, as our methods of education too often seem 
perversely adapted to do, and it is liable to become as dull 
and dead as — it is in the average grammar-school teacher. 

In summer schools and elsewhere I have had many classes 
made up largely of teachers, and I have often found boys and 
girls just entering a high -school apter pupils than these 
grown-up students, some of whom had been teaching lan- 
guage and literature for ten years or more. 

And here let me suggest that the critical study of some 
masterpiece of literature, especially poetry, is one of the best 
possible exercises for the teacher in this department. It 
may or may not be something' that one has to teach in 
school — it is as well, in my opinion, that it should be some- 
thing above the range of one's daily w^ork — but the manner 
of study is of more importance than the matter. This may 
be carried on by one's self, but it is better for two or three 
or more to do it together, meeting for the purpose weekly or 
fortnightly, or as often as may be convenient. If it could be 
done under the guidance of some one who knows how to 
study and teach literature, so much the better ; but this may 
not be possible in most cases. However managed, it may 
be as enjoyable as it is sure to be profitable — at once a 
delightful recreation and valuable self-culture. 

To return to work in school, but only in closing, let it be 
understood that the lessons in metre and rhetorical figures 
to which I have alluded are but random illustrations of the 
kind of exercises that I am confident can be combined with 



THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL COURSE IN ENGLISH 



13 



the reading of prose and poetry in the upper classes, if not 
in lower grades, of any grammar-school. I have no theory as 
to what can be accomplished with such pupils which is not 
based on my own experience in teaching. I am not dis- 
posed to dogmatize on the subject, but simply speak what 
I know — and it seems to me only a plain, common-sense 
answer to the question I have been invited to discuss. 

To sum up this answer in a sentence or two, the grammar- 
school should be literally and pre-eminently a grammar- 
school — taking the name in no narrow technical sense, but 
as indicating the school of language a?td literature for the vast 
majority who finish their school education here. The Eng- 
lish language is by far the most important part of its course 
of study, and should have more time than is now allowed it, 
taking time, if necessary, from other branches. Besides a 
thorough practical training in the speaking, reading, and 
writing of English, there should be some critical study of lit- 
erature — enough at least to enable the pupil to discriminate 
intelligently between what is good and bad in literature, and 
to lead him to love the one and despise the other in after- 
life. If this should be done, it can be done ; and it will 
be done when the balance of studies is fairly adjusted and 
methods of teaching are thoroughly perfected. 




HINTS FOR TEACHERS 

ON THE USE OF THE " ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL 

READING." 

It should be understood at the outset that this is no formal 
essay on elementary instruction in English Literature, but 
simply a few random hints to teachers on the use of the 
' English Classics for School Reading/' based upon the first 
two volumes — the Ta/es of Chivalry and Tales from English 
History. I do not assume that all teachers will need all or 
any of these hints ; they are written for such as may find 
them in some degree helpful or suggestive. 

As was explained in the preface to the first volume, my 
aim in the series has been *' to edit certain selections from 
standard prose and poetry, suited either for ' supplementary 
reading,- as it is called, or for elementary study in English 
literature." 

For the former purpose the brief notes under the text are 
perhaps all that some teachers will consider necessary, or 
that they may have time to make use of. If, however, they 
can take time for an occasional oral exercise based upon the 
longer notes at the end of the book, it will be a convenience 
to have this material at hand. Let me advise them at least 
to call the attention of their pupils to these notes, which 
contain much matter well worth reading, even if it is not 
used in the regular or occasional class-work. 

These longer notes, however, are more particularly de- 



HINTS ON USE OF "CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING" 15 

signed for the other purpose I have mentioned — elementary 
study of language and literature. They do not in any sense 
form a course of study, but are meant to be helps in whatever 
course the teacher prefers to pursue. They are not to be 
assigned in bulk as lessons. They are to be used for ref- 
erence as needed, not to be committed to memory. The 
text is the lesson, the notes are merely aids in studying it. 
To what extent they are to be used will depend upon the 
method of study. 

Certain notes are meant to be hints to the teacher rather 
than helps to the pupil. It will be seen that many are in 
the form of questions, and that there is considerable variety 
in the questions on the same subject. 

For instance, on page i8, line 60, of the Tales of Chivalry^ 
it is said that Scott was " led to regard his literary powers as 
an exhaustless mine of wealth " ; and the note on the italicized 
words is the question : " What is the figure here ?" 

On the next page, line 91, the text reads : — 

" Gentle as a child, he has been unspoiled by the flattery of 
a world. Through the mists of the fast-fading mind looks out 
that true and tender manhood which is forever memorable." 

The note quotes the Gentle as a child^ and asks : " Is the 
figure here the same as in the mists of the next line ?" 

Simile and metaphor have been previously explained and 
illustrated in a note (on page 13, line 334), which may be 
quoted here to show how such rhetorical instruction is given 
in the book : — 

** Was also a sealed book. That is, it was like a book whose 
covers are fastened together and sealed, so that it cannot be 
read. Here we have a metaphor, or implied comparison (see on 
page 10, line 266 above) ; as in line 350 below : * I waded into the 



l6 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

Stream'; where the abundant reading at his command is indi- 
rectly compared to a stream into which he is free to wade. But 
when he goes on to say * like a blind man into a ford/ the com- 
parison is direct, and is called a shnzle (a Latin word meaning 
like or similar, which is derived from it). The simile is always 
introduced by like, as, or some word expressing likeness or sim- 
ilarity ; while the metaphor omits these words and merely implies 
that one thing is like another. If Scott had written, ' The 
philosophy of history was like a sealed book to me,' it would 
have been a simile instead of a metaphor." 

On page 67, line 170, the expression, "White as pearl," 
occurs; and the note reads: "What is the figure.^ What 
would it be if Scott had written ' her teeth of pearl ' ?" 

The note on a simile on page 102 (" Like an oak," etc.) 
is : " Name and explain this figure." On another, on page 
103 (" Like crushed reptiles "), it is : " Point out another ex- 
ample of the same figure on the same page." 

These are only a few out of many examples intended to 
remind the teacher that he should avoid mechanical routine 
in his questions if he would not have his pupils get into the 
same bad way in their answers. 

Among these notes that are simply suggestions to the 
teacher are ^such as refer to beauties of style, sentiment, 
characterization, etc. The following, on page 102, line 251, 
of the Chivalry^ is an example : — 

" Holy prophets of the law I Note that all the exclamations 
of Rebecca are in keeping with her Jewish nationality. Con- 
trast with these the language of Ivanhoe on the next page, 
lines 290, 299, etc." 

In the passages referred to, Ivanhoe exclaims, " Saint 
George strike for us !" and " By Saint John of Acre !" 
Again, on page 122, line 183, the text reads thus : — 



17 

*' * Give me her glove,' said Beaumanoir. ' This is indeed,' 
he continued, as he looked at the flimsy texture and slender 
fingers, 'a slight and frail gage for a purpose so deadly! — 
Seest thou, Rebecca, as this thin and light glove of thine is to 
one of our heavy steel gauntlets, so is thy cause to that of the 
Temple, for it is our Order which thou hast defied.' 

" * Cast my innocence into the scale,' answered Rebecca, 'and 
the glove of silk shall outweigh the glove of iron.' " 

The note is as follows : — 

" As this thill a7id light glove, etc. Here we have the full and 
formal statement of the sim.ile. Note how aptly Rebecca turns 
the figure against Beaumanoir in her reply, which also illustrates 
the difference between the simile and the metaphor." 

On page i of the English History is this stanza of Cowper's 
Boadicea : — 

" Rome, for empire far renowned. 
Tramples on a thousand states ; 
Soon her pride shall kiss the ground — 
Hark ! the Gaul is at her gates !" 

I give the note on the last line in full, though it is only the 
second paragraph to which I wish to call attention here : — 

" Hark ! the Gaul is at her gates I By the Gaul Cowper means 
the Goths, Vandals, and other Northern tribes that broke up 
the Roman Empire in the 5th century. Gaul (mainly the terri- 
tory occupied by modern France), which had long been a part 
of the empire, was itself invaded and overrun by these bar- 
barians. 

Note the effect of the exclamatory form of the line. It would 
have been far less forcible if the poet had written, ' Soon the 
Gaul be at her gates.' " 



l8 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

Here tlie pupil should be led, if possible, to see for himself 
why the exclamatory form is more forcible. 

The following notes in the same book are similar hints to 
the teacher : — 

*' Page 75, line 19. — Gayly dance the bells. An expressive 
metaphor for the lively chiming of the bells." 

''Page 88, line i. — Traiiiple! trample ! In this word we have 
a ' correspondence of sound and sense'; that is, the sound of 
the word is like the sound described. Such words as buzzjiuvi, 
di?ig'do7ig, bow-wow, etc., are familiar examples of this ofiomato- 
pceia (Greek for word-making), as it is called, though we may 
be satisfied to define it as * correspondence of sound and sense.' 
Trap, pad, thud, and rap below are other examples. The use of 
these words adds not a little to the life and spirit of the narra- 
tive. We almost fancy that we hear the horses on their way." 

It would have been easy to multiply such notes in the 
books, but to have done so would have defeated my purpose. 
The teacher should see that his pupils find similar instances 
for themselves, giving them help only by Socratic question- 
ing, and no further than may be necessary to train them to 
the exercise of their own taste and judgment. 

These remarks apply equally to occasional notes in which 
the line of thought is explained ; as in some of those upon 
the following stanzas from Alfred the Harper (the disguised 
Alfred is singing in the camp of the Danes) : — 

•* * But chief his fame be quick as fire, 

Be wide as is the sea, 
Who dares in blood and pangs expire, 

To keep his country free! 
To such, great earls, and mighty king! 

Shall praise in heaven belong ; 
The starry harps their praise shall ring. 

And chime to mortal song. 



U^TAC-OT/-.0 T-^T^ O^TX^^x -r^x- » -r^x^T^ " 



HINTS ON USE OF ''CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING ig 

" ' Fill high your cups, and swell the shout, 

At famous Regnar's name, 
Who sank his host in bloody rout 

When he to Humber came ! 
His men were chased, his sons were slain, 

And he was left alone. 
They bound him in an iron chain 

Upon a dungeon stone. 



" * Great chiefs, why sink in gloom your eyes ? 

Why champ your teeth in pain ? 
Still lives the song though Regnar dies ! 

Fill high your cups again ! 
Ye too, perchance, O Norseman lords ! 

Who fought and swayed so long, 
Shall soon but live in minstrel w-ords, 

And owe your names to song ! 

****** 

** * To him, your lord, O, shout ye all! 

His meed be deathless praise ! 
The king who dares not nobly fall 

Dies basely all his days. 
The king w^ho dares not guard his throne, 

May curses heap his head ; 
But hope and strength be all his own 

Whose blood is bravely shed !' 

" ' The praise thou speakest,' Guthrum said, 
'With sweetness fills mine ear; 
For Alfred swift before me fled, 

And left me monarch here. 
The royal coward never dared 

Beneath mine eye to stand. 
O, would that now this feast he shared, 
And saw me rule his land !' " 



20 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

The following are the notes I have in mind here : — 

" Quick as fire. Explain the figures in this line and the next. 
Be is the third person imperative. 

** Note the turn which the harper here gives to his song. He 
has praised the warrior who fights and dies bravely, like the 
Norseman on his piratical expeditions ; but now he claims the 
highest fame for \h^ patriot who falls in defence of his native 
land. For him the harps of heaven shall echo the eulogies of 
men below." 

" Fill high your cups, etc. And now, having sung the praise 
of patriotism, the harper reminds the Norse invaders of the fate 
of the most famous of their predecessors, Regnar (or Regner) 
Lodbrog (or Lodbrok), who, as tradition relates, ravaged Nor- 
thumbria in the reign of Ella (who usurped the throne in A. D. 
862), and, being taken prisoner by that monarch, was thrown into 
a dungeon filled with vipers, as described in the poem. His sons 
Hinguar and Hubba were said to be among the jarls, or earls, 
who accompanied Guthrum on his expedition. The history of 
Regnar, however, is more or less mythical, and some authorities 
doubt whether he ever existed except in the Norse legends." 

"■ Why sink in gloom your eyes f It is the fear of defeat rather 
than of death which thus affects the warriors, for the Norsemen 
dreaded no death except from disease or old age. Regnar is 
said to have died singing the joys of that death in battle which 
his fate denied him ; and the song ends with, * The hours of my 
life are numbered ; I die laughing.' " 

** To him, your lord, etc. This stanza is so expressed as to 
mislead Guthrum and the rest. It seems to deride and execrate 
Alfred for his cowardice; but the king simply invokes curses 
upon his own head if he shall prove the coward that his enemy 
believes him to be. The next stanza shows how completely 
Guthrum is deceived by the ambiguous language of the sup- 
posed minstrel." 

In this particular instance the pupil may need some help 



HINTS ON USE OF "CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING" 21 

in following the subtle turns of thought and explaining the 
ingenious ambiguities of the harper's song ; but the analysis 
is a sample of what he should, in most cases, do for himself, 
and the teacher should see that he does it. It is not my 
purpose to do it for him. 

Other notes hint at lessons and exercises in elementary 
criticism; as in the one on these lines in The Burial of Sir 
yohn Moore : — 

** ' But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, 
With his martial cloak around him.' 

" He lay like a warrior, etc. A comma is often put after lay, 
to the injury of the passage. Why is it better without the 
comma T' 

The pupil should need no help in answering this question. 
The last stanza of The Song of the Camp, by Bayard Tay- 
lor, now reads thus : — 

** Sleep, soldiers ! still in honored rest 
Your truth and valor w^earing ; 
The bravest are the tenderest, — 
The loving are the daring." 

There is the following note upon it : — 

** Sleep, soldiers I etc. The earlier version of the stanza was : — 

" * Ah ! soldiers, to your honored rest 
Your love and glory bearing, — 
The bravest are the loveliest, 
The loving are the daring.' 

" It is much improved by the revision, especially in the third 
line." 



22 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

Why it is ^Mmproved " should be explained by the pupil, 
not by the teacher. 

No two copies of The Relief of Lucknow, by Robert T. S. 
Lowell (an elder brother of James Russell Lowell), as printed 
in various collections, agree in their readings. It is given in 
the English History as it appears in the author's edition of 
i860. The various readings are given in the notes, and their 
comparative merits should be discussed by the class. Boys 
and girls ten years old, if not younger, can do this original 
work in criticism, and they enjoy it heartily; and the teacher 
will be surprised to see how rapidly they improve in it. 

These exercises in criticism should be combined, from first 
to last, with the study oi flgiirative language suggested by the 
notes. In my opinion, the pupil should learn the elementary 
facts about figures, not from a text-book of " rhetoric," but 
from the examples in what he reads, and by finding and 
analyzing them for himself, rather than by having them 
pointed out and explained to him. The average schoolboy 
or schoolgirl can be led, by judicious questioning, to deduce 
all this ^' rhetoric " from half a dozen pages of any good 
poetry (or prose, if it contain enough of figurative language) 
in a few lessons. Almost no direct instruction is needed. 
The technical terms should be very sparingly introduced. 
Only such as have ceased to be exclusively technical, and 
ought to be understood by every well-informed person (meta- 
phor^ simile, personiftcatio?i, and the like), should be employed. 
The mere pointing out of instances of the figures (saying 
**This is a metaphor," or "That is a simile," etc.), without 
regard to the aptness, or beauty, or other noteworthy fact 
concerning them, is *' fiat, stale, and unprofitable " work after 
the pupil has once learned to recognize and name the fig- 
ures. In some schools this is the chief thing done in the 
so-called "study" of poetry, but, like a good deal of the 



HINTS ON USE OF "CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 23 

work done in our schools, it stops just where really useful 
w^ork should begin. It is the mechanical drudgery which is 
the necessary preliminary to exercise at once profitable and 
enjoyable. It is learning the names of the rhetorician's 
tools without understanding how he uses them or learning 
to use them ourselves. 

Since this work, to be worth anything, must be done by 
the pupil and not by the teacher or the editor, it will be seen 
that my notes pertaining to it are few and far between ; but 
the teacher must keep in mind the plan of which they give 
hints and exemplifications. Here and there I insert a note 
solely as a reminder to the teacher. On pages 105 and 106 
of Chivalry^ for example, the following extract from Ivanhae 
occurs : — 

" ' Rebecca,' he replied, * thou knowest not how impossible it 
is for one trained to actions of chivalry to remain passive as a 
priest or a woman when they are acting deeds of honor around 
him. The love of battle is the food upon which we live — the 
dust of the 7nelee is the breath of our nostrils ! We live not — we 
wish not to live longer than while we are victorious and re- 
nowned. Such, maiden, are the laws of chivalry to which we 
are sworn, and to which we offer all that we hold dear.' 

*' * Alas !' said the fair Jewess, * and what is it, valiant knight, 
save an offering of sacrifice to a demon of vainglory, and a pass- 
ing through the fire to Moloch } What remains to you as the 
prize of all the blood you have spilled — of all the travail and 
pain you have endured — of all the tears which your deeds have 
caused, when death hath broken the strong man's spear, and 
overtaken the speed of his war-horse ?' . . . 

" * By the soul of Hereward !' replied the knight impatiently, 
*thou speakest, maiden, of thou knowest not what. Thou 
wouldst quench the pure light of chivalry, which alone distin- 
guishes the noble from the base, the gentle knight from the 
churl and the savage ; which rates our life far, far beneath the 



24 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

pitch of our honor, raises us victorious over pain, toil, and suf- 
fering, and teaches us to fear no evil but disgrace. Thou art no 
Christian, Rebecca; and to thee are unknown those high feel- 
ings which swell the bosom of a noble maiden when her lover 
hath done some deed of emprize which sanctions his flame. 
Chivalry! — why, maiden, she is the nurse of pure and high 
affection — the stay of the oppressed, the redresser of griev- 
ances, the curb of the power of the tyrant.' " 

The following is the concluding note on this portion of the 
text :— 

" Note the figures in this passage, and in lines 371, 372 below, 
where there is also a Scriptural allusion. The next page abounds 
in examples of figurative language. Observe.the personification 
of Chivalry in 405 and the lines that follow." 

The pupil should be questioned here upon the figures in 
the passages referred to. 

Other notes suggest exercises that may be introduced in 
connection with the study. The note on the following lines 
from Boadicea — 

" Every burning word he spoke 

Full of rage and full of grief" — 

concludes thus : — 

" For other examples of metaphor drawn from fire, see * Preg- 
nant with celestial fire ' (full of religious ardor) in the present 
poem ; * warlike fire ' in line 37, page 4 ; ' burning blood ' in line 
7, page 10; 'kindling wine' in line 20, page 10; 'mouths of 
flame' in line 29, page u ; ' brows inflamed ' in line 53, page 12, 
etc." 

This illustrates a kind of work which the pupil may occa- 
sionally be required to do in any similar case ; and the search 



HINTS ON USE OF " CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING '' 25 

for examples need not be confined to the book in hand. 
Metaphors and similes drawn from familiar objects and phe- 
nomena (plants, trees, and flowers, beasts, birds, and insects, 
earth, air, and water, day and night, sunrise a^d sunset, the 
seasons, and the like) abound in our literature, and the pupil 
can readily find a dozen or more examples under any of these 
heads or a small subdivision of some of them — as a particular 
tree or flower, like the oak or the rose. But criticism should 
be a part of all these exercises. Only such examples should 
be accepted or approved as are apt or admirable, and the 
pupil should be required, if called upon, to show wherein 
their special merit consists. These exercises may be either 
oral or written ; and if written they may often be made a 
substitute for the periodical "composition." 

In this connection I may call attention to the following 
note on page 114, line 652, of Chivalry^ as illustrating a 
curious and interesting group of metaphors which pupils will 
enjoy tracing out : — 

** Hound of the Teinple. — Compare page 66, line 129 [' Dog of 
an unbeliever !'], and page 90, line 201 [' Cowardly dog !'J. Meta- 
phors taken from the names of animals are common, not only 
in books but in every-day speech. Such use of hog, bear, fox, 
goose, etc., will occur to young people at once, and they can 
easily make out a long list of similar names. Sometimes the 
metaphor takes the form of a verb ; as in dog, to follow like a 
dog. Compare Comiis, 405 : * I fear the dread events that dog 
them both.' " 

The figure should be explained in each instance, and, if 
possible, striking examples of it should be hunted up. 

Another excellent exercise, suggested by certain of the 
notes, is the finding of passages or poems resembling the 
one under consideration, in subject, style (figurative Ian- 



26 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

guage, metre, etc.), beauty, or any other noteworthy char- 
acteristic. 

A note on the following passage from The Armada of 
Macaulay may serve as an illustration here : — 

'* Night sank upon the dusky beach and on the purple sea : 
Such night in England ne'er hath been nor e'er again shall 

be. 
From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford 

Bay, 
That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day ; 
For swift to east, and swift to west, the ghastly war-flame 

spread ; 
High on Saint Michael's Mount it shone ; it shone on 

Beachy Head," etc. 

This is the note : — 

''For swift to east, etc. For a similar spirited description of 
spreading an alarm by signal-fires from the heights, see Scott's 
Lay of the Last Minstrel, iii. 341-392. The following is an ex- 
tract from it : — 

** ' And soon a score of fires, I ween, 

From height and hill and cliff were seen, 
Each with warlike tidings fraught ; 
Each from each the signal caught ; 
Each after each they glanced to sight, 
As stars arise upon the night.'" 

Exercises in changing figurative language to literal, or 
changing one figure to another (suggested by various notes 
in both books) may also be introduced at the discretion of 
the teacher. 

An easy but very instructive exercise in the study of words 
is suggested by the following note on page 4, line 19, of 
English History: — 



HINTS ON USE OF *' CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING " 27 

** The board. The dining- hall. Note the various derived 
senses of board, which originally meant simply the wood of 
which a table is made." 



Any boy or girl old enough to read the book ought to be 
able, without help from the teacher, to explain how the vari- 
ous derived meanings of board (noun and verb) have come 
from its original sense of a plank ; as used to make a table 
(and so running out into suggestions of food, eating, hospital- 
ity, etc., and of officers gathered about a table for consulta- 
tion or business), or to form the deck or sides of a ship 
(whence on board, aboard, larboard, starboard, the verb board 
in its nautical senses, etc.), to say nothing of minor mean- 
ings, as the boards of a theatre, compounds like blackboard, 
card -board, chess-board, sideboard, sounding-board, etc., and 
phrases like above board, etc. 

In connection with this exercise the young people (and 
perhaps some of their elders) need to be reminded that 
words of the same or similar form a7id meaning may be of 
different derivation ; like isle and island, rhyme and rhythm, 
to take familiar examples. In the case of board, the word as 
applied to the side of a ship is by some derived from the 
French, and the New English Dictionary of the Philological 
Society says that aboard " appears to have been taken 
directly from the French a bord''\' but the French bord, it 
adds, is of Teutonic origin and perhaps directly related to 
^^^r^zz: plank. 

While referring to the study of words, I may mention 
certain classes of facts concerning words which are occa- 
sionally made the subject of notes : — 

I. Old forms of words ; as, in the English History (where 
the notes on them may be found by the index), Excester 
(an example of an interesting class of geographical names), 



28 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

vaward, hoMe??, mettle, etc. ; and in Chivalry (see index), iv hit- 
tie (noun), sithy fought en ^ reck, etc. 

2. Old senses of words ; as, in the E?iglish History (see 
index), brave, adva?ice, cheer, million, to (=for), on (z=of), be 
(=are), etc.; and in Chivalry (see mdex), proof, strength, 
trumpet, etc. 

3. Words used only in poetry ; as, in English History (see 
index), erewhile, hap, massy, etc. 

4. Words used rarely or peculiarly ; as, in Chivalry (see 
index), affir7nance, advantage (verb), applauses, etc. ; and in 
English History, behoof, blink, devildoms, etc. 

5. Diminutives, and other derivative words rarely noticed 
in school text-books ; as, in English History (see index), islet, 
lubbard, Peter kin, etc. 

A few notes under these heads may be cited here as illus- 
trations : — 

" Mettled, Spirited. The word mettle is only another spelling 
of metal. In the early editions of Shakespeare, as in other 
books of that day, we find metal and mettle without regard to 
the meaning. Of course mettle is a metaphorical form of 
7netal, originally alluding to the quality of a sword-blade as 
depending upon the steel of which it is made.'* 

'* Recks, Cares; now little used except in poetry. Reckless, 
which is derived from it, was in constant use down to the mid- 
dle of the 1 6th century, but fifty years later it had become 
so nearly obsolete that Dr. Richard Hooker (i 553-1600) thought 
it necessary to explain its meaning in a marginal note. It w^as 
afterwards revived, and is now familiar to every English-speak- 
ing person. Reck was formerly used impersonally also; as in 
Milton's ComuSy 404: 'Of night or loneliness it recks me not'; 
that is, I do not care for them, or regard them." 

** Make no heavy cheer. The original meaning of cheer was 
face or countenance ; as in Shakespeare, Midsummer'Nighf s 
Dream, iii. 2. 96 : ' pale of cheer '; Spenser, Faerie Quee7ie, i. 1.2: 



HINTS ON USE OF " CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING '' 29 

** * Right faithfull true he was in deede and word, 
But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad,' etc. 



Hence * to be of good cheer ' meant to look cheerful ; and 
from the frequent use of this and similar phrases ckeer itself 
came to be understood as meaning cheerfulness or gladness. It 
was also applied to viands or provisions for a feast, as promot- 
ing cheerfulness ; and, finally, to cries or shouts expressive of 
joy or pleasure." 

'' Minio7i. The word is now used only in a contemptuous 
sense, but its original meaning was darling, or favorite. In Syl- 
vester's Du Bar/as (1605) we find * God's disciple and his dear- 
est minion'; and in Stirling's Doi7ies-day : 'Immortal minions 
in their Maker's sight.* Shakespeare, Macbeth (i. 2. 19), refers 
to his hero as * Like valour's minion.' " 

** To thy own share meansy<^r your own share. In old English 
this use of to ior for was very common. Compare Judges^ xvii. 
13 ; Matthew, iii. 9 ; Luke, iii. 8, etc. * Take to wife ' is still used 
in the marriage service." 

'' Arvior of proof , This use oi proof ^2iS a technical term, im- 
plying that the armor had been proved, or tested, or would bear 
the ^r^^ of actual service in war. The word is sometimes put, 
by metonymy, for the armor itself, as in Shakespeare's Richard 
III. V. 3. 219 : — 

"'ten thousand soldiers. 
Armed in proof, and led by shallow Richmond.'" 

" Strength. In the use of strength for stronghold, we have an 
example of an * abstract ' noun, or the name of a quality, put for 
a 'concrete' noun, or the name of something possessing that 
quality. This is a form of that ' figure of speech ' which writers 
on rhetoric call metonymy — a word which means 'change of 
name ' or ' exchange of names.' Shakespeare uses this same 
abstract noun in another concrete sense in Kmg Lear (i. i. 41), 
where the old monarch says: — 



30 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

** ' Know that we have divided 
In three our kingdom ; and 't is our fast intent 
To shake all cares and business from our age, 
Conferring them on younger strengths ;' 

that is, on those who are younger and stronger. We also find 
strength used for an army (just as we now w^^ force and forces — 
another example of the same figure); as in King John (ii. i. 388)^ 
where 'your united strengths' means your allied armies." 

" Islet y a diininutive of isle ; that is, a derivative noun denot- 
ing a smaller thing of the same kind ; as leaflet, lambkin, hillock, 
duckling, etc. Give other examples of diminutives with these 
endings {-let, -kin, -ock, -ling)!' 

** Lubbard. The word has the force of a * big lubber,' the end- 
ing -ard being apparently used as in laggard, sluggard, drunk- 
ard, etc., where it has what is called an augmentative force, ex- 
pressing frequency or excess. Thus a laggard is one who lags 
much, or is very lazy ; a sluggard, one who is very sluggish ; a 
drunkard, one who drinks to excess, etc. In braggart, the end- 
ing becomes -art!* 

French and other foreign words are not only defined, but 
their pronunciation is added ; and the peculiar local pronun- 
ciation of English geographical names is given. The follow- 
ing notes are examples : — 

'' Drap-de-bure. French for cloth of drugget. Drap (which 
we have in drape, draper, drapery, etc.) is pronounced drah. 
The e in de, as before explained, is like that in her ; and bure 
may be pronounced as it would be in English, though the 
French u has a sound unknown in our language." 

" Beaulieu (here Bo-lu' , but the local pronunciation is Bu^-le) 
is within the limits of the New Forest, an extensive tract of 
woodland originally set apart as a royal hunting-ground by 
William the Conqueror. Here his son, William Rufus, was 
killed in iioo by Walter Tyrrel." 



HINTS ON USE OF "CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING" 31 

'' Belvoir (pronounced Bee'-ver) Castle, the seat of the Duke of 
Rutland, is on a high hill. George Crabbe (i 754-1 832), the poet, 
lived here as chaplain for some time." 

The gram7natical notes are few but important. Some are 
intended to call attention to errors or omissions in the ordi- 
nary school text-books. For instance, in the English History 
(note on page no, line 44) the distinction between "particip- 
ial nouns," properly so called, and "verbal nouns " or " infini- 
tives ending in -ing^^ (which the text-books either do not 
recognize at all or fail to make intelligible to young students) 
is clearly stated and illustrated, thus : — 

*' The loving are the daring. In loving and daring we have 
examples of 'participial nouns,' or participles in -ing used as 
nouns. These are often confounded with ' verbal nouns,* or * in- 
finitives in -ing' as they are sometimes called, which have no 
historical connection with the participle. We have examples of 
these in 'Loving is the opposite of hating'; 'deeds of daring,' 
etc. The * participial noun ' always expresses the agent, the 
'verbal noun' the action. In Early English the two had different 
endings, as they still have in German. A child can readily dis- 
tinguish the two by the sense, not only when used singly, but 
also in compounds. Compare, for instance, a workinginan (a 
man who works) and a working-day (a day for working), Cowper's 
'church-going bell ' (which Wordsworth was wrong in criticising), 
and 'a church-going belle' or 'church-going people,' etc." 

Certain of the notes refer to grammatical forms or con- 
structions that are obsolete; as the use of who for which 
and which for who {English History^ on page 40, line 17). 
The passage referred to is the following stanza of Dray- 
ton's Ballad of Agincoiirt (the preceding stanza ends with 
a period) : — 



32 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

** Which, in his height of pride 
King Henry to deride. 
His ransom to provide 

To the King sending; 
Which he neglects the while, 
As from a nation vile, 
Yet with an angry smile 

Their fall portending." 

The note (which I quote in full, as illustrating other feat- 
ures of the annotation) is as follows : — 

*' Which, in his height of pride. Which was often used for 
who, and who for which, in the time of Drayton. Thus in Shake- 
speare we find * a lion who ' {Julius CcBsar, i. 3. 21), * The mistress 
which ' ( Tejnpest, iii. 1.6), etc. Compare the Lord's Prayer : * Our 
Father which art in heaven.' In the present passage we have 
another old construction, which being used at the beginning of 
a sentence for * And he.' Compare Acts, xxi. 37, w^here Who is 
similarly used. 

" The whole sentence is an example of the loose syntax of the 
time of Elizabeth. The meaning is: And he (the French gen- 
eral), in his height of pride, in order to show his contempt for 
Henry, sent word to him (Henry) to prepare his ransom (as if 
already captured by the French). Holinshed says : ' Here we 
may not forget how the French thus in their jolitie sent a herald 
to King Henrie, to inquire what ransome he would offer. Where- 
unto he answered, that within two or three houres he hoped it 
would so happen that the Frenchmen should be glad to common 
[that is, to confer] rather with the Englishmen for their ransoms, 
than the English to take thought for their deliverance, promis- 
ing for his owne part, that his dead carcasse should rather be a 
prize to the Frenchmen, than his living bodie should paie anie 
ransome.' Shakespeare, in Henry V, (iii. 6 and iv. 3), represents 
the French herald as coming twice with insulting propositions 
concerning the ransom. The second time, Henry says to him : 



HINTS ON USE OF " CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 33 

'* 'I pray thee, bear my former answer back : 
Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones. 
Good God ! why should they mock poor fellows thus ? 
That man that once did sell the lion's skin 
While the beast lived was killed with hunting him. 

Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald : 

They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints/" 

Farther on in the same poem we find this passage : — 

" None from his fellow starts, 
But, playing manly parts. 
And like true English hearts, 
Stuck close together/' 

The note (which contains a reference to the one just given) 
is as follows : — 

•* Stuck close together. The grammatical subject of stuck is 
only implied in what precedes. Such loose construction (see on 
page 40, line 17) was common in Elizabethan English. - Compare 
Henry V, iv. 7. 188 : — 

'* * For I do know Fluellen valiant, 

And, touched with choler, hot as gunpowder ; 
And quickly will return an injury;* 

that is, he will return it." 

I may add as further illustrations of this class of notes the 
following (from Ejiglish History., page 66, line 38, and Chiv- 
alry, page 112, hue 573) :— 

*' We were best put back. It would be best for us to put back. 
The old expressions,/ 'Z£/<?r^^<5^j'/,j/(?2^ were best, etc., had their ori- 
gin in a construction in which the verb was impersonal and the 
pronoun was in the dative case — equivalent to the objective 



34 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

with to ox for : it were best for me, for you, etc. In like manner, 
if you please was oxi^m^Wy if it please you ^ or be pleasing to you, 
etc.'* 

" I yield 7ne. I yield myself. The use of the personal pronoun 
for the reflexive was once common, but is now admissible only 
in poetry or, as here, in imitation of the language of the olden 
time." 

These are facts in the history of the language which pupils 
who have begun to study grammar will readily learn and 
understand \ as they will the lesson hinted at in the follow- 
ing note on page 39, line 76, of Chivalry : — 

** In short, French was the language, etc. The remainder of 
this paragraph might well be learned by heart — or, better, the 
substance of it mastered — as a lesson in the history of the Eng- 
lish language." 

The passage referred to (from Scott's account of the times 
of Richard I. in Ivanhoe) is this : — 

" In short, French was the language of honor, of chivalry, and 
even of justice, while the far more manly and expressive Anglo- 
Saxon was abandoned to the use of rustics and hinds, who knew 
no other. Still, however, the necessary intercourse between 
the lords of the soil and those oppressed inferior beings by 
whom that soil was cultivated occasioned the gradual formation 
of a dialect, compounded betwixt the French and the Anglo- 
Saxon, in which they could render themselves mutually intel- 
ligible to each other; and from this necessity arose by degrees 
the structure of our present English language, in which the 
speech of the victors and the vanquished have been so happily 
blended together, and which has since been so richly improved 
by importations from the classical languages and from those 
spoken by the southern nations of Europe." 

This is further illustrated by the dialogue between Waniba 



HINTS ON USE OF " CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING " 35 

and Gurth on pages 47, 48, which is commended in the notes 
as "an excellent lesson in language,'' and which the teacher 
should make a text for oral instruction : — 

'* ' How call 3^ou those grunting brutes running about on their 
four legs ?' demanded Wamba. 

*• * Swine, fool, swine,' said the herd ; 'every fool knows that.' 

*' * And swine is good Saxon,' said the Jester; 'but how call 
you the sow when she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and 
hung up by the heels, like a traitor ?' 

'* • Pork,' answered the swineherd. 

"' I am very glad every fool knows that too,' said Wamba, 
'and pork, I think, is good Norman-French; and so when the 
brute lives, and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her 
Saxon name ; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when 
she is carried to the Castle-hall to feast among the nobles; 
what dost thou think of this, friend Gurth, ha ?' 

" ' It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got 
into thy fool's pate.' 

" ' Nay, I can tell you more,' said Wamba, in the same tone; 
' there is old Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet 
while he is under the charge of serfs and bondsmen such as 
thou, but becomes Beef, a fiery French gallant, when he arrives 
before the worshipful jaws that are destined to consume him. 
Mynheer Calf, too, becomes Monsieur de Veau in the like man- 
ner ; he is Saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a Nor- 
man name when he becomes matter of enjoyment.' " 

The following note (on page 47, line 261, of Chivalry) illus- 
trates two interesting peculiarities of the old grammar : — 

''An thoiibeest. If you are. Beest is the old subjunctive form. 
It was also often used in the indicative ; as in Hamlet, iii. 2. 32 ; 
'O, there be players that I have seen play,' etc. Sometimes we 
find be and is in immediate succession ; as in Richard III, iv. 4. 
92 :— 



36 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

•' * Where is thy husband? Where be thy brothers? 
Where are thy children ?* 

When a boy says now * Where be tbey ?' it is a vulgarism ; but, 
like many other vulgarisms (double negatives and the confound- 
ing of who and which, for example), it was once good English. 

** Thou was formerly used in addressing inferiors, as by a mas- 
ter in speaking to a servant. It was also common between equals, 
especially if they were on familiar terms ; but to use it in speak- 
ing to a stranger who was not an inferior was an insult. Many 
examples of the distinction might be given ; as in Shakespeare's 
Julius Ccesar (v. 5. 33), where Brutus says : — 

'* * Farewell to you, — and you, — and you, Volumnius ; 
Farewell to thee too, Strato ;' 

where the persons first addressed are his friends, but Strato is 
a servant. So in King Lear (iv. 6. 32), Edgar, disguised as a 
peasant, says to the noble Gloster : * Now fare you well, good 
sir f and Gloster replies: ' ^ow, fellow, fare thee well.' See also 
on page ^6, line 58, below." 

The note on page 86, line -58, is as follows, and refers back 
to the above : — 

" Your grace. Observe that Locksley, in addressing the Prince, 
uses the pronoun /^^, while the Prince uses thou in speaking to 
him. See on page 47, line 261, above." 

The notes on errors in grammar should all be discussed by 
the class; and the errors should be corrected by the pupil, 
if this has not been done in the note. A few examples of 
such notes may be quoted here. 

In Chivalry^ page 59, is the following sentence from 
Ivan hoe : — 

*' Brian de Bois-Guilbert kept his eyes riveted on the Saxon 



HINTS ON USE OF '^CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING " 37 

beauty, more striking perhaps to his imagination because differ- 
ing widely from that of the Eastern sultanas." 

This is the note : — 

** That of the Eastern sultanas. The use of that is not strictly 
grammatical ; neither would those be just right, as beauty is not 
the abstract noun, but the concrete — meaning a beautiful per- 
son, not beauty as a quality. If Scott had written * on the 
beauty of the Saxon lady,' it would be correctly followed by 
* that of the Eastern sultanas.' " 

On page 93 we find this from the same novel : — 

*' Ivanhoe answered her hastily that he was, in point of health, 
as well, and better than he could have expected — * Thanks,' he 
said, * dear Rebecca, to thy helpful skill.' " 

The note is as follows : — 

** As well, and better than he could have expected. The gram- 
matical construction is incomplete. It should read, *as well as, 
and better than,' etc., or, preferably, ' as well as he could have 
expected, and better.' " 

Here the correction might have been left to the pupil ; but 
the preferable form might not have occurred to him — and 
possibly not to some teachers. Of course, the pupil should 
be asked to explain why it is preferable. If he cannot do it, 
the teacher may help him out. 

A very common error occurs in another sentence of Scott's, 
in the English History., page 35, line 2 : — 

" Percy, Earl of Northumberland, an English noble of great 
power, and with whom the Douglas had frequently had en- 
counters, sent his two sons. Sir Henry and Sir Ralph Percy, to 
stop the progress of invasion." 



38 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

This is the note upon it : — 

** Arid zvzth who?n. The and is superfluous with the relative. 
It should never be used except to connect a second relative 
clause to the preceding ; as, for example, if this passage had 
read, * an English noble of great power, who often made incur- 
sions into Scotland, and with whom,' etc." 

In the extract from Kenilworth {English History^ p. 62) 
Scott writes thus : — 

** The queen received this address also with great courtesy, 
and made answer in raillery, — * We thought this lake had be- 
longed to our own dominions, fair dame ; but since so famed 
a lady claims it for hers, we will be glad at some other time 
to have further communing with you touching our joint in- 
terests.' " 

I give this note for the benefit of pupils and teachers out 
of New England : — 

** We will be glad, ' We shall be glad ' would be better Eng- 
lish. Why?" 

Here is a worse sentence from the same novel {^English 
History^ P^ge 68) : — 

"After this, amid a crowd of lords and ladies, yet so disposed 
around her that she could see and be seen on all sides, came 
Elizabeth herself, then in the prime of womanhood, and in the 
full glow of what in a sovereign was called beauty, and w^ho 
would in the lowest rank of life have been truly judged a noble 
figure, joined to a striking and commanding physiognomy." 

This is the note : — 

''And who. The construction is bad here. Arid %v hat ^ov^di 
be less objectionable, though not exactly satisfactory. The latter 
part of the sentence should be recast." 



HINTS ON USE OF "CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING '* 39 

It will be a good exercise for the older pupils to recast it. 
If necessary, the teacher can do it for them. 

Occasionally a grammatical question of the ordinary sort 
is asked or suggested ; as in E7iglish History^ note on page 5, 
line 67 : — 

" What sceptre grasped King Arthur s hand? What is the 
grammatical subject oi grasped f 

It may seem unnecessary here to call attention to the sim- 
ple inversion of subject and object; but grown-up children 
have sometimes been strangely misled by this familiar trans- 
position. In Gray's Elegy, for instance, the substitution of 
aivait for awaits in the following stanza was doubtless due 
to a misapprehension of this sort : — 

" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power. 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave. 
Awaits alike the inevitable hour. 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

Deceived by the arrangement, editors and critics have 
hastily assumed that boast, p07np, etc., are the subjects, and 
hour the object of aivaits, which they have consequently "cor- 
rected " to await, though the three manuscripts of the poem 
left us by Gray all have awaits. Moreover, the sense requires 
that hour shall be the subject. The "inevitable hour" of 
death awaits all earthly rank and power and beauty and 
wealth, though they are not looking forward to it, or await- 
ing it. 

It is well, therefore, to call the attention of young people 
to a case of this kind, if only to put them on their guard 
against being too hasty in coming to a decision when the 
construction is not so clear. 



40 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

It occurs to me here to refer to somewhat similar notes 
which the teacher might at first think to be superfluous ; as 
in English History^ on page i6, line 142, where the text 
reads : — 

" And Guthrum cried : * Nay, bard, no more 
We hear thy boding lay; 
Make drunk the song with spoil and gore; 
Light up the joyous fray !' " 

It may be said that no boy or girl old enough to read a 
poem like this of Sterling's needs to be informed that we 
hear means ^' we wish to hear," as the note explains ; or that 
further on in the poem the statement that " The Danes ne'er 
saw that harper more" means ''saw him as a harper": but 
it is nevertheless well for the pupil to note that the expres- 
sions, literally or logically interpreted, may have a different 
meaning. 

A word about the notes on metre^ which some teachers 
might be inclined to regard as too difficult for young pupils. 
On the contrary, they will be found to be precisely adapted 
to this period of school work. It is the right time for learn- 
ing what many grown-up people never succeed in mastering. 
The child has a natural ear for metre and rhythm. In re- 
peating a familiar lyric from Mother Goose, that classic of the 
nursery, he renders the opening couplet at once as, 

" Mistress Mary, 
Quite contrary ;" 

but ten or twenty years later, when he has lost this childish 
sensitiveness to the music of verse, you cannot depend on his 
reading in Hamlet, "Our wills and fates do so contrary run." 
Ten to one, he will give it, " Our wills and fates do so con- 
trary run," in utter unconsciousness that he has made prose 



HINTS ON USE OF "CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING" 41 

of it. To the child the metrical analysis of a line is easier 
than the grammatical analysis, and half an hour's oral in- 
struction will enable him to master the leading forms of 
English verse — iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic — 
technical terms and all; that is, if he is led to deduce the 
essential facts and principles for himself from the poetry, as 
illustrated in the notes to E?iglish History. His mastery of 
the subject should be tested by requiring him to find other 
examples of the various metres (except, perhaps, the dactylic, 
of which the more familiar specimens are mentioned on page 
133 of English History^, not limiting the search to the book 
in hand. 

The notes on rhyme suggest other profitable exercises ; as 
the finding of imperfect rhymes that are allowable — like 
those mentioned in the note on page i, line 15, of English 
History : 

" Abhorred. This is not a perfect rhyme with word, the vowel 
sounds being somewhat different ; and so with words and chords^ 
proud and bestowed, in the latter part of the poem. Such rhymes 
are used more or less by all English poets." 

Rhymes that are bad or inadmissible may similarly be 
hunted up ; like those criticised in the note on page 5, line 
54, of English History, where the brighter pupils will probably 
detect for themselves the objection to a rhyme like riiiii and 
p?irsuin\ as the word would have to be pronounced if we 
make it " sound right." 

The teacher may give interest to this subject by asking the 
pupils if there are English words (not including proper names 
of persons,' places, etc.) for which no rhyme can be found ; 
and, if so, to look up examples of them (like silver, squirrel, 
shadow, planet, filbert, beetle, statue, trellis, April, August, te77iple, 
virtue, forest, poet, open, proper, almond, bayonet, sovicthing, 
3 



42 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

?iothi?ig, etc.). Words which have o?ily one rhyme are also 
curious ; like people {steeple)^ anguish^ winter^ hornet^ hatchet^ 
mountain^ darkness^ blackness, votive, etc. It is unnecessary to 
give the rhymes for all these ; but it must be understood 
that single words are required in all cases, not combinations 
of words, like catch it as a rhyme to hatchet, or hurt you to 
virtue. These latter rhymes may suggest the looking up of 
odd and fantastic rhymes, like scores in Ihe Ingoldsby Le- 
gends, Lowell's Fable for Critics, etc. 

The biographical, historical, geographical, and other notes of 
a miscellaneous character are to be used at the discretion of 
the teacher. It is not necessary to make them a part of the 
regular lesson, or to do more than simply suggest to the pupil 
to read them. Even this hint will not be needed for some 
of the boys and girls, who are sure to become interested in 
portions at least of this matter, whether the teacher refers 
to it or not. 

It may be said here that the greatest care has been taken 
to secure accuracy in the statement of historical and other 
facts. In the case of doubtful or disputed matters due cau- 
tfon has been exercised ; as, for instance, in these notes in 
Chivalry on page 21, line 13, and page 40, line 112 : — 

" The Holy Sepulchre. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre at 
Jerusalem is generally believed to be on the site of the tomb 
of Christ, though some learned men have held a different 
opinion." 

"' Druidical super stitio7t. Druid ism appears to have been com- 
mon to all nations of the Celtic race, to which the ancient Brit- 
ons belonged. The Druids were not only priests and teachers 
of religion, but also magistrates and judges. The oak-tree was 
especially sacred among them, and many of their rites were per- 
formed in oak-groves. The structures mentioned by Scott are 
found in various parts of the British Isles, and have been gen- 



43 

erally supposed to be Druidical monuments; but this is by no 
means certain." 

Popular misapprehensions have been pointed out and cor- 
rected ; as in these notes on page 27, lines 35 and 53, of 
Chivalry : — 

''And even the very air was efitirely devoid of its ordinary 
winged inhabita7its, etc. This has often been asserted of the 
Dead Sea; but, according to good authorities, birds have been 
seen flying over the lake, and even resting on its surface. Here 
and there upon its banks are thickets of tamarisk and oleander 
which are the home of many singing-birds. Except on the east 
side, however, where there are ravines with fresh-water springs, 
the shores are destitute of vegetation and indescribably dreary." 

''A siifficieitt weight of armor. The ancient armor was heavy 
and cumbrous, but training and experience made the wearing of 
it easier than we might think possible. Measurements of the 
many specimens that have been preserved prove that the men 
who wore it were not of larger frame than the average soldier 
of to-day." 

In the note on page 48, line 284, the confused statements 
concerning 'Mianging, drawing, and quartering" are disen- 
tangled and reconciled for the first time, so far as I am 
aware : — 

'' A7id drawn, and quartered, and hung up by the heels, like a 
traitor. There is an allusion here to the ancient punishment of 
a traitor by * hanging, drawing, and quartering ;' the victim being 
disembowelled {drawn is still used in this sense in connection 
with dressing fowls) and cut into pieces after being hung. In 
the time of George III. this penalty for treason was changed 
to 'drawing the criminal on a hurdle to the place of execution, 
hanging him, and dividing his body into quarters.' This will 
explain the seemingly inconsistent explanations of * hanging. 



44 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

drawing, and quartering,' given in dictionaries and encyclo- 
paedias." 

In the Efzglish History, page ii, line 27, in the poem of 
Alfred the Harper, most readers and some teachers would 
hastily assume that "Where Thames makes green the towery 
strand" refers to the Tower of London, which is on the bank 
of the river ; but this was not built until after the Norman 
Conquest, much later than the time of the poem. Teachers 
should see if the pupil can explain a point like this without 
assistance. The note merely states that the reference is to 
the city of London. 

The quotations in the notes may be made the subject of 
occasional oral exercises. I remember distinctly meeting 
with the lines from Spenser quoted in Chivalry (in note on 
page 26, line 2) when I was very young, and how they made 
me want to know^ more about the poem and the author. 
This is the note : — 

''A knight of the Red-cross. That is, wearing the red cross of 
St. George, the national emblem of England. The first book of 
Spenser's Faerie Qiieene is devoted to the ' legend of the Knight 
of the Red-cross,' who typifies Holiness in the allegory (see on 
page 12, line 320, above). The 2d stanza says of him : — 

"'And on his brest a bloodie Crosse he bore, 
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, 
For whose svveete sake that glorious badge he wore, 
And dead, as living, ever him ador'd : 
Upon his shield the like was also scor'd. 
For soveraine hope which in his helpe he had.'" 

A quotation in the old spelling, like the one just given, and 
the following of greater length (page 151 of English History), 
will repay a little special attention : — 



HINTS ON USE OF '' CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 45 

" According to Sir Walter Raleigh, who wrote a * Report of 
the truth of the fight about the lies of Azores this last Sommer/ 
the engagement began at 3 p.m. on the 31st of August, Old Style, 
or the loth of September, New Style, in the year 1591. Gervase 
Markham, who commemorated the event in a poem entitled TAe 
Most Honorable Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinuile, Knight (i 595), 
gives the main facts in his * Argument,' or introduction, as fol- 
lows : — 

** ' Sir Richard Grinuile, lying at anchor neere vnto Flores, one 
of the westerlie Hands of the Azores, the last of August in the 
after noone, had intelligence by one Captayne Midleto7i of the 
aproch of the Spanish Armada, beeing in number fiftie three saile 
of great ships, and fifteene thousand men to man them. Sir 
Richard, staying to recouer his men which were vpon the Hand, 
and disdayning to flie from his Countries enemy, not beeing able 
to recouer the winde, was instantlie inuironed with that hudge 
Nauie, betweene whom began a dreadfull fight, continuing the 
space of fifteene howers, in which conflict. Sir Richard sunck the 
great San Phillip of Spai7ie,\\\^ Ascention of Sitiel,t\iQ^ Admirall 
of the Hulks, and two other great Armados ; about midnight Sir 
Richard receiued a wound through the bodie, and as he was 
dressing, was shot againe into the head, and his Surgion slaine. 
Sir Richard mayntained the fight, till he had not one corne of 
powder left, nor one whole pike, nor fortie lyuing men ; which 
seeing, hee would haue sunke his owne ship, but that was gaine- 
stood by the Maister thereof, who contrarie to his will came to 
composition with the Spanyards, and so saued those which were 
left aliue. Sir Richard dyed aboard the Admyrall of Spayne, 
about the fourth day after the battaile, and was mightlie be- 
waild of all men.' " 

Some of the children may find difficulty in r(f<7^/;/^ parts of 
it on account of the spelling, especially the interchanging of 
u and V — and I have known teachers who were not aware 
that the v was regularly used at the beginning of words and 
the u elsewhere. The absence of the apostrophe in posses- 



46 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

sives (sometimes a stumbling-block to editors of Shakespeare 
and other early writers), the use of italics in proper names, 
and other peculiarities may be noted. The spelling of Hand 
may be particularly referred to as more correct than island^ 
which, as intimated above, is due to a supposed connection 
with isle. 

Mistakes like the one mentioned in the note on page 89, 
line 29, of English History are curious as well as instructive, 
and should receive at least a moment's attention. The note 
is on this passage of The Cavalier s Escape, by Walter Thorn- 
bury : — 

*' I looked where highest grew the may, 
And deepest arched the fern ;" 

and reads thus : — 

" The 7nay. The white hawthorn. In more than one instance 
this may has been confounded with the month of May. In 
Tennyson's Millers Daughter, 130, the poet says, * The lanes, 
you know, were white with may ' (that is, with the hawthorn 
blossoms); but the American editions print 'with May,' as if it 
meant with May flowers in general. As it happens, Tennyson 
uses * white with May ' in this latter sense in The Co7ni?tg of 
Arthur : — 

" * Far shone the fields of May through open door, 
The sacred altar blossomed white with May, 
The sun of May descended on their king.' " 

The cuts in the book may also be the subject of oral exer- 
cises. The reason for introducing human figures in cuts like 
this on page 138 of Chivalry ought to be explained by the 
pupil : — 



HINTS ON USE OF '^CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 47 



A CROMLECH 



A question as to the height of the stones in the picture 
will probably serve as a clew, if any is needed. Even mere 
" tail-pieces/' like the group of old arms on page S^ of C/iizf- 
a/rj, and the hawk and heron on page 115, may furnish topics 
for oral instruction ; and so with the cuts on pages 64, 73, 
etc., of the English History, The cut on page 9 of the latter 
book is a particularly good subject for the brighter members 
of a young class to exercise their wits upon, with the aid of 
the quotation under it (given on page 48). Its relation to the 
poem to which it is appended should not be overlooked. 

I have said already that some teachers may not need all 
or any of these suggestions ; and I do not expect that any 
teacher will use all the notes in all the possible ways I have 
mentioned. The notes, as I have said, are aids to the study 
of the text, and the extent to which they are used must de- 
pend upon the method of study. The teacher can easily 
explain to the pupils that certain notes or portions of notes 



48 



THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 



need not be studied^ though they may profitably be read. 
In my own teaching I have always graduated the required 
work to the average ability of the class, making due allow- 
ance for the failure of the dunces to come up to this stand- 
ard, and furnishing enough of extra optional work for the 
brighter pupils, most of whom are generally ready to do more 
than the strict letter of the law demands. In the notes to 
my books I aim to furnish a good supply of material that 
may be used in keeping this latter class of pupils busy. The 
teacher must see that this material is made a stimulus to the 




** Within the hollow crown 
That rounds the mortal temples of a king, 
Keeps Death his court ; and there the antic sits, 
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp." 

ij^ichard IL iii. 2. 160.) 



HINTS ON USE OF "CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 



49 



better half of the class, not a stumbling-block in the hard 
path of the poorer half. 

In a word, the notes are to be used, just in the degree that 
they can be made useful, in every grade of school exercise 
for which the text is suitable, from mere " supplementary 
reading" up to the most varied critical study that can be 
exacted of the pupil at that stage of his education. If the 
teacher finds more matter in the notes than he can use to ad- 
vantage, it is easy to let it alone. If, with the hints here given, 
he does not find all that he wants, he can probably supply 
the deficiency by oral instruction or by referring the pupil to 
other sources of information in the school, home, or public 
library. These hints, as the heading implies, are limited to 
the use of my own books, and I have purposely refrained 
from suggestions concerning the many valuable exercises 
which depend mainly upon collateral reading or study. 

In closing, let me say that I shall always be grateful to teach- 
ers for memoranda of any typographical or other errors they 
may detect, as well as for any suggestions concerning possi- 
ble improvements in these or future volumes of the series. 




HINTS ON TEACHING HISTORY 

The teaching of history is generally a perplexing task, ex- 
cept to those who conduct it in the bad old way of merely 
requiring the pupil to commit a text-book to memory. This 
method is not entirely obsolete in these latter days. Not 
very long ago, in a New England country town, I visited a 
high-school, the master of wdiich was a graduate from one of 
our smaller colleges. He was very proud of his class in 
English History, and its work had been highly commended 
by the " committee men " who had witnessed it. I happened 
to be present at one of the recitations, and had to admit that 
it was "remarkable in its way." The teacher began by call- 
ing up one of the boys, who, without any further question or 
direction, started off with a fluent repetition of the first para- 
graph of the lesson. This had been committed to memory 
from the book, and was given absolutely verbatim, I had a 
copy of the book in my hands, and could detect no variation 
from the letter of the text. Another pupil was then called 
upon, who continued the narrative from where the first had 
dropped it, and went on to the end of the paragraph, or until 
the teacher said " Enough." Others followed, in no regular 
sequence, until the lesson was finished. If a pupil hesitated 
or blundered, he was stopped at once, and another was called 
upon to take up the broken thread of the story. Of course 
this necessitated close attention on the part of those who 
had not recited ; and those who were relieved from anxiety 



HINTS ON TEACHING HISTORY 5 1 

on that point appeared to be engaged in keeping track of 
the rest. The teacher had a good measure of personal mag- 
netism, and had succeeded in exciting no little emulation 
among his pupils. They evidently felt the same interest in 
the recitation that they would have had in a game of ball. 
As a competitive exercise in the gymnastics of memory it 
was not bad, but as instruction in history it could hardly 
have been worse. 

Just how the teaching of history should be managed in 
elementary schools I will not attempt to say, nor will I add 
other examples of " how not to do it." I wish simply to refer 
to the use of historical fiction and poetry for awakening or 
increasing an interest in the study. This is one of the ends 
I have had in view in preparing the Tales of Chivalry and 
the Tales from English History and Scottish History. These 
books may be read before the formal study of history is be- 
gun, to stimulate the appetite for further and fuller knowl- 
edge ; or they may be used for collateral reading in connec- 
tion with the study, in order to make it more attractive and 
consequently more profitable. 

When I was twelve or thirteen years old, and had just en- 
tered the high-school, the master occupied a vacant half-hour 
one day by reading to us the story of the combat of the 
Christian and the Saracen, from Scott's Talisman^ which 
is the first selection in the Tales of Chivalry. It was a de- 
light and a revelation to me. I had read nothing of Scott's 
then, and knew nothing about the days of chivalry. The 
story opened for me a new world, with which I longed to be 
better acquainted ; but I did not dare to ask the teacher to 
lend me the book, or even to inquire the name of it. It was 
not till a year or two later that I found out what it was, and 
that it was fiction and not sober history, though founded 
upon the latter. 



52 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

It was about the same time, or earlier, that I came across 
Cowpers poem of Boadicea in one of the few books to 
which I had access out of school ; and that also I found 
equally fascinating and stimulating. I have included it in 
the Tales from E?iglish History, and in the notes I have put 
the historical facts which as a child I was so eager to learn 
but too diffident to ask anybody to teach me. How I should 
have enjoyed the other stories in verse and prose which I 
have collected in the same little volume ! Some of them — 
Macaulay's A7^mada, for instance— stirred my soul like mar- 
tial music wdien I became acquainted with them later in my 
boyhood. They made history more attractive than fiction 
— unless it was fiction based on history, like Scott's novels 
of that class. 

The mention of Macaulay reminds me of the charm I 
found in his Lays of Ancient Rome, which came out when I 
was fitting for college. Certain critics, of whom the late 
Matthew Arnold is perhaps the most notew^orthy, tell us that 
the Lays are not poetry; but on that question I am content 
to be wrong with John Stuart Mill and " Christopher North '* 
and Henry Morley and Edmund Clarence Stedman, if they 
are wrong, rather than to be right with Matthew Arnold, if 
he is right. I may quote Stedman here, as perhaps saying 
best what these excellent critics agree substantially in say- 
ing : " Lord Macaulay \s Lays of Ancient Rofne was a literary 
surprise, but its poetry is the rhythmical outflow of a vigor- 
ous and affluent writer, given to splendor of diction and im- 
agery in his flowing prose. He spoke once in verse, and un- 
expectedly. His themes were legendary, and suited to the 
author's heroic cast, nor was Latinism ever more poetical 
than under his thoroughly sympathetic handling. I am 
aware that the Lays are criticised as being stilted and false 
to the antique, but to me they have a charm, and to almost 



HINTS ON TEACHING HISTORY 53 

every healthy young mind are an immediate delight. Where 
in modern ballad-verse will you find more ringing stanzas, 
more impetuous movement and action ? Occasionally we 
have a noble epithet or image. Within his range — little as 
one who met him might have surmised it — Macaulay was a 
poet, and of the kind which Scott would have been first to 
honor. Ho7'atius and Virginia among the Roman lays, and 
that resonant battle - cry of Ivry^ have become, it would 
seem, a lasting portion of English verse." 

Every teacher who has used the Lays with his classes can 
testify that boys enjoy them heartily. They are particularly 
well adapted for collateral reading in the study of Latin, on 
account of their subjects and their many allusions to Roman 
customs and habits. 

There is much truth in what Macaulay said about the writ- 
ing of history before he tried his hand at writing it himself: 
" History should be a compound of poetry and philosophy, 
impressing general truths by a vivid representation of partic- 
ular characters and incidents. While our historians are prac- 
tising all the arts of controversy, they miserably neglect the 
art of narration, the art of interesting the affections and pre- 
senting pictures to the imagination. . . . The instruction de- 
rived from history thus written would be of a vivid and prac- 
tical character. It would be received by the imagination 
as well as the reason. It would be not merely traced upon 
the mind, but burned into it." 

I venture to say that to most of us the portions of English 
history that we think we know best, and that seem most real 
to us, are the portions included in the plays of Shakespeare ; 
and when we visit Old - World scenes of historic events, it 
is often the poet rather than the historian to whom we feel 
most indebted for the interest they excite. When we stand 
in Wolsey's Hall at Hampton Court, it is Shakespeare's 



54 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

Wolsey whom we think of; and the visionary throng that 
fills the magnificent room is that which the poet assembles 
there in his He^iry VIII, At Bannockburn the patriot is per- 
haps more stirred by the poet than by any historian of the 
battle. 

" On Bannock-field what thoughts arouse 
The swain whom Burns s song inspires ! 
Beat not his Caledonian veins, 
As o'er the heroic turf he ploughs, 
With all the spirit of his sires, 
And all their scorn of death and chains !" 

History merely writes the obituary of the dead past ; Poetry 
calls it back from the grave, and makes it live again before 
our eyes. 

The combination of poetry and history which Macaulay 
commends we certainly do not find in the school text-books. 
The best of them have little or none of the poetry, though 
they attempt to render the history somewhat less dry and re- 
pulsive than it is made in the worst of them ; and few there 
be of the former kind compared with the multitude of the 
latter. It might not be a bad idea to put some of the best 
historical poems into the text -book as an appendix; but, 
since the makers of such books have not seen fit to do this, 
I believe that many teachers will be glad to have the poetry, 
together with some of the entertaining prose tales founded 
on the history, in separate volumes like these of mine. As I 
have already suggested, these can be used as collateral read- 
ing for young students of history, or, if preferred, as prepara- 
tory to the study of text-books. At the same time, as I have 
explained in the "Hints for Teachers" (page 14 above), the 
books can be used for the elementary study of English, the 
notes having been written with an eye to both purposes. 



HINTS ON TEACHING HISTORY 



55 



I may add that, in these notes, the greatest care has been 
taken to secure accuracy in the statement of historical and 
other facts. In respect to doubtful or disputed matters, due 
caution has been exercised and dogmatisni avoided. Popular 
misapprehensions have been pointed out and corrected ; and 
the confused statements concerning the minor details of his- 
tory which are found, not only in school-books, but some- 
times in cyclopaedias and other works of reference, are dis- 
entangled and the truth made clear. Attention is also called 
to any variations from historical facts in the fiction or poetry. 




CRUSADERS 

(From Tales of Chivalry) 



THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

[This is the "card " to which reference is made on page 6 above. It 
was originally printed on the two sides of a card of about the size of this 
page, for use as "supplementary reading" and as material for oral in- 
struction in the Cambridge (Mass.) grammar-schools. It was also printed 
in Harper s Young People. '\ 

The inscription on the Soldiers' Monument in Boston, 
written by the President of Harvard College, has been much 
admired. It reads thus : — 

TO THE MEN OF BOSTON 

WHO DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY 

ON LAND AND SEA IN THE WAR 

WHICH KEPT THE UNION WHOLE 

DESTROYED SLAVERY 

AND MAINTAINED THE CONSTITUTION 

THE GRATEFUL CITY 

HAS BUILT THIS MONUMENT 

THAT THEIR EXAMPLE MAY SPEAK 

TO COMING GENERATIONS 

What is to be said is here said in the simplest way. There 
is no waste of words, no attempt at display. It is a model 
of good English, brief, clear, and strong. If a schoolboy had 
written it, he would have thought it a fine chance for using 
big words. He would have said, " The citizens of Boston 



THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 57 

who sacrificed their lives," not " the men who died ;" and 
"preserved the integrity of the Union," not "kept the Union 
whole;" and "erected," not- "built." And some men who 
have written much in newspapers and books would have 
made the same mistake of choosing long words where short 
ones give the sense as well or better. 

A great preacher once said that he made it a rule never to 
use a word of three or two syllables when a word of two syl- 
lables or one syllable would convey the thought as well ; and 
the rule is a good one. In reading we want to get at the 
sense f^ro/ig/i the words; and the less power the mind has 
to spend on the words, the more it has left for the thought 
that lies behind them. Here the simple words that we have 
known and used from childhood are the ones that hinder 
us least. We see through them at once, and the thought is 
ours with the least possible labor. 

Those who urge the use of simple English often lay stress 
on choosing ^^ Saxon " rather than " Classical " words, and it 
is w^ell to know what this means. 

The English is a mixed language, made up from various 
sources. Its history is the history of the English race, and 
the main facts are these : — 

Britain was first peopled, so far as we know^, by men of the 
Celtic (or Keltic) race, of which the native Irish are types. 
The names of the rivers, mountains, and other natural feat- 
ures of the land are mostly Celtic, just as in this country they 
are mostly Indian. About fifty years before the Christian 
era the Romans conquered Britain, and held it for about five 
hundred years. They brought in the Latin language ; but few 
traces of it now remain, except in the names of certain towns 
and cities. The mass of the people kept their old Celtic 
tongue. Between the years 450 and 550 a.d. Britain was in- 
vaded and conquered by German tribes, chiefly Angles and 



58 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

Saxons. It now became Angleland, or England ; and the 
language became what is called Anglo-Saxon^ except in the 
mountains of Wales and Scotland, where Celtic is found to 
this day. In the ninth and tenth centuries the Danes in- 
vaded England, and ruled it for a time, but they caused no 
great change in the language. In the year 1066 the Norman 
Conquest took place, and William the Conqueror became 
King of England. Large numbers of the Norman French 
came with him, and French became the language of the court 
and of the nobility. By degrees our English language grew 
out of the blending of the Anglo-Saxon of the common people 
and the Norman French of their new rulers, the former fur- 
nishing most of the grammar^ the latter supplying many of 
the words. Now the French was of Latin origin, and the 
English thus got an important Latin or " Classical " ele- 
ment, which has since been increased by the adding of 
many Greek and Latin words, especially scientific and tech- 
nical terms. 

The two great events in the history of the English lan- 
guage, as of the English people, are the Saxon and the Nor- 
man conquests. To the former it owes its grammatical 
framework, or skeleton ; to the latter much of its vocabulary, 
or the flesh that fills out the living body. 

It must not be inferred that our grammar is just like the 
Anglo-Saxon because this is the basis of it. The Anglo- 
Saxon had many more inflections (case -endings of nouns 
and pronouns, etc.) than the French, and in the forming of 
English most of these were dropped, prepositions and aux- 
iliaries coming to be used instead. It was not until about 
A.D. 1550 that the language had become in the main what 
it now is. Some words have since been lost, and many have 
been added, but its grammar has changed very little. Our 
version of the Bible, published in 161 1, shows what English 



THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 



59 



then was (and had been for fifty years or more), and has 
done much to keep it from further change. 

As a rule the most common words — those that chiefly 
make up the language of childhood and every-day life — are 
Saxon ; and very many of them are words of one syllable. 
In the inscription above, every monosyllable is Saxon, with 
Boston^ grateful^ and coming ; the rest are French or Latin. 
In the case of pairs of words having the same meaning, one 
is likely to be Saxon, the other Classical. Thus happiness is 
Saxon, felicity is French ; begin is Saxon, co77imence is French ; 
freedom is Saxon, liberty is French, etc. The Saxon is often 
to be preferred, though not always ; but, as has been implied 
above, if a short and simple word conveys our meaning, we 
should never put it aside for a longer and less familiar one. 
In such cases the chances are that the former is Saxon, and 
the latter Classical. Thus above, citizens, sacrificed, p7'eserved, 
integrity, and erected are all Classical. 




From Tales from English History, p. 64. 




SEA-KINGS 

(From Tales from English History) 



APPENDIX 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 

In the ** Hints for Teachers " (pages 14-49 above) the ilkistra- 
tive passages and notes are entirely from the first two volumes 
of the series, the Tales of Chivalry and the Tales fro7n English 
History, A concise description of these books and of the other 
volumes already issued, with a few specimens of the notes in the 
latter, may be added here. 

Tales of Chivalry. — This book (150 pages) contains a 
sketch of the life of Scott, the early part of it being largely 
drawn from the autobiography which he began ; and the follow- 
ing tales from the Waverley Novels, mostly from Ivanhoe : " The 
Crusaders "; ** The Christian Knight and the Saracen "; " Sher- 
wood Forest in the Reign of Richard the First "; " The Tourna- 
ment at Ashby-de-la-Zouche "; '' Robin Hood " (his adventures 
at the Tournament when disguised as Locksley the Yeoman); 
" The Siege of Torquilstone " (the castle of Front-de-Boeuf) ; and 
*' The Trial of Rebecca the Jewess." Portions of the original 
text are somewhat condensed, to adapt them to my purpose, 
but they are not otherwise modified. 

Tales from English History. — This book (170 pages) con- 
tains both prose and poetry. The former is entirely from Scott's 
novels and Tales of a Grandfather, and comprises the following 
pieces: "Edward the Black Prince at Cressy and Poitiers"; 
*' Percy and Douglas "; '' Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth "; " Sir 
Walter Raleigh's First Interview with Queen Elizabeth"; and 
"The Restoration of Charles the Second." 

The poems, all of which are complete, are as follows : Cow- 



62 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

^trs Boadzcea ; Sx.^Y\\ngs Alfred the Harper ; Drayton s Ballad 
of Agincourt ; Macaulay's The Armada ; Tennyson's " The Re- 
ve?2ge"; Walter Thornbury's The Cavalier s Escape ; R. S. Haw- 
ker's So7tg of the Cornish Men; South ey's Battle of Blenheim ; 
Cowper's Loss of the ** Royal George " ; Wolfe's Burial of Sir John 
Moore ; Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade ; Bayard Tay- 
lor's Song of the Camp ; and Robert T. S. Lowell's Relief of 
Liick?iow. 

The selections are arranged in historical or chronological 
order. The notes contain biographical sketches of the authors, 
and also of the historical personages referred to. Of the other 
notes the specimens in the ** Hints to Teachers " will suffice to 
give an idea. 

Tales from Scottish History.— The prose selections in 
this volume also (210 pages) are from Scott's novels and Tales 
of a Grandfather. They include " Robert the Bruce "; " The 
Taking of Three Castles" (Edinburgh, Linlithgow, and Rox- 
burgh) ; " Douglas and the Heart of the Bruce "; " The Battle of 
Otterburn "; " The Battle of Flodden "; ''The Goodman of Bal- 
lengiech "; " Mary Queen of Scots Resigns the Crown "; " The 
Escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven "; " Killiecrankie and 
the Death of Dundee "; " Rob Roy "; and " The Battle of Preston 
Pans." 

The poems are: Sir Patrick Spens ; Aytoun's The Heart of 
the Bruce; the old ballad of The Battle of Otterbourne ; Ay- 
toun's Edinburgh after Flodden ; Allan's Queen Marys Escape 
from Lochleven ; Aytoun's Execution of Montrose and The Burial 
March of Dundee ; and Campbell's LochieVs Warni7ig. 

It will be seen that several of the stories are given in both 
prose and verse, illustrating the different ways in which the his- 
torian and the poet deal with the same subject. The selections, 
as in the Tales from English History, are arranged chronologi- 
cally, the prose narrative being followed by the poetical version 
when both are given. 

The first poem in the volume, the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, 
suggests the following note on ballad poetry : — 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 63 

*' This poem is one of the ballads in Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of 
the Scottish Border — that is, the border-land between Scotland and Eng- 
land. A ballad, in the sense in which the word is here used, is ' a versi- 
fied narrative, in a simple, popular, and often rude style, of some valorous 
exploit or some tragic and touching story.' The old ballads were in- 
tended to be sung, or recited in a musical way, with the accompaniment 
of a harp or some similar instrument. They were often composed by the 
singers, or minstrels, who led a wandering life, like the street musicians 
in our day. Originally these roving poets were welcomed to the mansions 
of the great no less than to the cottages of the common people ; but they 
gradually sank in social position until in the 15th century they were re- 
garded much as the wandering organ-grinder is now. In England in 
1597 they were classed by a statute with ' rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy 
beggars. ' 

" In the introduction to Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, the scene of 
which is laid in the latter part of the 17th century, the decline in the for- 
tunes of the minstrels is pathetically described : — 

" * The way was long, the wind was cold, 
The Minstrel was infirm and old ; 
His withered cheek and tresses gray 
Seemed to have known a better day ; 
The harp, his sole i-emaining joy, 
Was carried by an orphan boy. 
The last of all the bards was he, 
Who sung of Border chivalry ; 
For, well-a-day 1 their date was fled, 
His tuneful brethren all were dead ; 
And he, neglected and oppressed, 
Wished to be with them and at rest. 
No more, on prancing palfrey borne, 
He carolled, light as lark at morn ; 
No longer courted and caressed, 
High placed in hall, a welcome guest. 
He poured, to lord and lady gay. 
The unpremeditated lay : 
Old times were changed, old manners gone, 
A stranger filled the Stuart's throne ; 
The bigots of the iron time 
Had called his harmless art a crime. 
A wandering harper, scorned and poor, 
He begged his bread from door to door. 
And tuned, to please a peasant's ear, 
The harp a king had loved to hear.' 

" The old English and Scottish ballads were not put into written form 



64 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

until long after they were composed ; and copies taken from the lips of 
different persons often vary much. There are many versions of this 
* grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spens,* as the poet Coleridge called it. 
Some of the variations are given in the notes below. 

** Critics do not agree as to the event upon which this ballad is founded ; 
but it was probably the expedition sent in 1281 to carry Margaret, daugh- 
ter of Alexander III. of Scotland, to Norway as the bride of King Eric 
of that country. As an old historian relates, she, * leaving Scotland, on 
the last day of July, was conveyed thither, in noble style, in company 
with many knights and nobles. In returning home, after the celebration 
of her nuptials, the Abbot of Balmerinoch, Bernard of Monte-Alto, and 
many other persons were drowned.' 

" The poem is composed in what is called ' ballad measure,' because it is 
the most common metrical form for these old popular songs. The stanza 
is made up of alternate lines of eight and six syllables each, with the ac- 
cents on the even syllables ; but, as will be seen, there are frequent varia- 
tions both in the number of syllables and in the place of the accent. 

** Verse with the accent on the even syllables is called iambic, being re- 
garded as made up of iambuses (or iambi, if we use the Latin plural) ; an 
iambus being a combination of two syllables, with the accent on the 
second." 

I add some of the shorter notes on the same poem, calling 
attention to peculiarities of the ballad style : — 

" O, where will I get a skeely skipper, etc. Note the frequent use of O 
in beginning sentences in this ballad, and compare The Battle of Otter- 
bourne. Skeely is also spelled skilly, and is derived from skeel {skill). 
Skipper is to be accented on the second syllable, like sailor in line 7, 
letter in line g, etc. Compare Longfellow's ballad of 7'he Wi'eck of the 
Hesperus, written in imitation of this old style : ' And the skipper had 
taken his little daughter,' ' Then up and spake an old sailor,' etc. (the 
accent marks being the poet's own)." 

" Up and spake. A common expression in the old ballads, as in mod- 
ern imitations, like Longfellow's." 

" 7^0 Noroivay, to Noroway, etc. Repetitions of this and other forms 
are frequent in the ballads. What purpose do they serve in poems ad- 
dressed to the ear rather than the eye, recited or sung instead of being 
read ?" 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 65 

** Ye lie, ye lie, ye liars loud, etc. The rhyme suggests that lie is to be 
pronounced like le (le), a Scottish form of the word. Compare The Battle 
of Otterbourne, lines 69, 70 (page 59). 

** Note the 'dramatic form' here and in the following stanzas, that is, 
giving what is said without stating who says it. This is another charac- 
teristic of the old ballads. Who is the speaker here ? Who in lines 47- 
52?" 

The following notes on other selections illustrate sundry feat- 
ures of my method : — 

*^ And the Miserere s singing. The Miserere is the 51st Psalm (50th 
in the Vulgate^, so called from the first word of the Latin version, which 
begins thus : * Miserere mei, Domine ' (* Pity me, O Lord '). In the 
Roman Catholic and Greek churches it is used in the burial service and 
on certain other occasions. 

** The construction here — * the Miserere is singing ' — is liable to be mis- 
understood. Some persons would say that * is being sung' would be 
better; but singing here (like building u\ * the house is building,' etc.) is 
not the participle, but the * verbal noun,' or 'the infinitive in -tJig,' as 
some grammarians call it. The earlier form was a-singing, a-bnilding 
(still used colloquially, as when boys talk of 'going a-fishing,' etc.), in 
which the rt; is a remnant of an or on. * The house is building ' means 
'the house is in process of building.' Compare y.i>>^«, li. 20: 'Forty 
and six years was this temple in building ;' where in (equivalent to the 
old an or on) is expressed. In i Peter, iii. 20, we have the form with a : 
'while the ark was a-preparing. ' In Shakespeare we have a-bleeding, 
a- brewing, a-coming, a-doing, etc. 

** The a- in afire, afoot, ashore, etc., is similarly prepositional. We can 
say instead on fire, on foot, on shore, etc. But some of these forms have 
become obsolete. We cannot now use a- high for ott high, as Shakespeare 
does in Richard III. iv. 4. 86 : ' heaved a-high. * On the other hand, we 
cannot use on sleep for asleep, as in Acts, xiii. 36 : ' fell on sleep.' " 

[For another note on the same subject, see page 31 above.] 

" The lights of Saint Elmo. Balls of fire, of an electrical nature, 
sometimes seen on the tops of masts and the ends of yards of ships at sea, 
4 



66 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

especially in threatening or stormy weather. They are so called after 
Saint Elmo, bishop of Formije, in ancient Italy, who died about 304 and 
is regarded as a patron saint by sailors in the Mediterranean. Compare 
Longfellow, Golden Legend : — 

" * Last night I saw Saint Elmo's stars, 

With their glimmering lanterns, all at play 

On the tops of the masts and the tips of the spars, 

And I knew we should have foul weather to-day.' " 

'* Taster at the queen's table. It used to be a regular formality at royal 
tables for an officer or servant, appointed for the purpose, to taste of the 
food and wines in order to certify to their good quality. This was called 
taking the assay (or say) or giving the say. Compare Richard II. v. 5. 
99, where the keeper comes in with a dish for the imprisoned monarch, 
who says to him : * Taste of it first, as thou art wont to do.' " 

' ' Rede. Also spelled read, being the noun corresponding to the verb 
read, the original meaning of which was * to counsel or advise.' Com- 
pare Hamlet, i. 3. 51 : * And recks not his own rede * ; that is, does not 
mind, or follow, the advice he gives to others." 

^ ^ In fiery fight against the foe. Observe the alliteration, or beginning 
successive words with the same sound, as here with f. Point out other 
examples in this poem." 

*' Scotland's kindly earth. That is, native earth, the land of his birth. 
The original meaning of both kind and kindly is 'natural.' In the 
Litany ' the kindly fruits of the earth ' are its natural fruits, or such as 
it brings forth according to its kind, or nature. Compare the noun iiv 
Genesis, i. 11, 12, 21, 24, etc." 

** Eyne. Or eyen, an old plural formed like oxen, hosen {Daniel, iii. 21), 
shoon (Hamlet, iv. 5. 26), etc. It is used here for the sake of the rhyme. 
Compare page 61, line 114." 

'^ Amain. That is, with main, or force. The noun is still used in 
this sense in the expression, ' with might and main.' " 

* * News have arrived. News is the plural of new (a translation of the 
French plural nouvelles), and is often found with a plural adjective or 
verb in old writers. Shakespeare uses it in both numbers, even in the 
same play. Compare Much Ado, ii. i. 180 : ' these ill news ;' and v. 2. 
102 : 'this news.* " 

" Thick as leaves in Vallombrosa. This familiar quotation is from 
Milton's Paradise Lost, i. 302 : — 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 67 

* Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks 
In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades 
High over-arch'd imbower.* 

Vallombrosa was a famous abbey in Tuscany, at an elevation of about 
3000 feet on the wooded mountains near Florence. It was founded in 
the nth century, and suppressed in 1869. The buildings are now occu- 
pied by a school of forestry." 

* ' Locheill. Sir Evan Cameron of Locheill, or Lochiel, chief of the large 
and powerful clan of Cameron. He was also known as Evan Dhu, or 
Black Evan, from his dark complexion. Scott, in the Tales of a Grand- 
father, tells many interesting stories of him ; this, for instance : * Being 
benighted, on some party for the battle or the chase, Evan Dhu laid him- 
self down with his followers to sleep in the snow. As he composed him- 
self to rest he observed that one of his sons or nephews had rolled to- 
gether a great snowball on which he deposited his head. Indignant at 
what he considered as a mark of effeminacy, he started up and kicked the 
snowball from under the sleeper's head, exclaiming, ** Are you become so 
luxurious that you cannot sleep without a pillow ?" ' After the civil war 
was over he grew old in peace, dying in 17 19 at the age of ninety. In 
his last years, Scott says that ' this once formidable warrior was fed like 
an infant, and like an infant rocked in a cradle.' " 

Fairy Tales. — This book (i88 pages) contains a selection of 
fairy tales in prose and verse from early and recent literature. 

Those in prose are The Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, Prince 
Cherry, and The Prince with the Nose (all four from Miss 
Mulock's collection); the story of The Midsummer - Nighf s 
Dreamy as told by Charles and Mary Lamb ; and Poucinet and 
The Fairy Crawfish (both translated from Laboulaye). 

The poems are AUingham's The Fairies ; Tennyson's The 
Sleeping Beauty ; Mary Hewitt's The F'airies of the Caldon- 
Low ; the anonymous old Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow ; 
Hood's Queen Mab ; Ariel's Song from The Tempest of Shake- 
speare ; Lover's The Fairy Tempter and The Hat^nted Spring ; 
Robert Buchanan's The Green Gnome ; " The Gathering of the 
Fays," from J. R. Drake's The Culprit Fay ; T. H. Bayly's O, 
Where do Fairies Hide their Heads? Miss M. A. Lath bury 's 
May Song ; and Miss J. McDermott's Fairy Tale, 



68 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

The introduction to the notes, which is intended to give 
young readers a general idea of fairy mythology, is as follows : — 

** Nowadays it is only young children that ever suppose fairies to be 
real beings ; but in former times the common people of England and 
other European countries believed that there were such creatures, and 
that the stories about them were actually true. Learned men have given 
much time and study to this fairy mythology,* as it is called, but they do 
not agree as to where it had its birth. Beings like the fairies in certain 
respects are found in Oriental and Greek fable, and some stories about 
these beings may have become blended with the early ideas concerning 
fairies; but the latter properly belong to the north of Europe, and we 
begin to hear of them as far back as the I2th century. They probably 
had their origin among people of the Keltic or Celtic race (to which the 
aboriginal inhabitants of the British Isles belong), but many new ideas 
about them were derived from Scandinavian, Teutonic (or German), and 
French sources. 

** In a general sense, the tQxnx fairies includes all the beings knowni as 
fays, elves^ dwarfs, trolls, brownies, hobgoblins, gnomes, kobolds, kelpies, 
pixies, etc. ; but strictly it is applied only to the fays, or fairies properly 
so called, the smallest of all these imaginary creatures. The elves are like 
the fairies in this respect ; the two names being, indeed, commonly used 
as synonymous. These are the fairies of the poem on The Fairy Queen 
(page 30) and of Shakespeare's Midsiwiuier- Alight' s Dreajn — tiny sprites 
that can * creep into acorn-cups and hide themselves ' (page 34). The 
same poet thus describes Mab their queen in Romeo and Juliet (i. 4. 53 

fol.) :— 

** * she comes 
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone 
On the fore-finger of an alderman, 
Drawn witht a team of little atomiesj 
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep; 
Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners'§ legs. 
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, 
The traces of the smallest spider's web, 
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams, 
Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film, 

* "The word means a group of 7nyths, or fables, about gods, heroes, or other beings of 
more than human powers. All races of men in the early stages of their history have a 
mythology and believe in it, often as a part of their religion." 

f " By." t " Atoms, or creatures as small as atoms." 

§ " Spiders, * Daddy-long-legs.' " 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 69 

Her wagoner a small gray-coated gnat, 
Not half so big as a round little worm 
Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid ; 
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut 
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, 
Time out of mind the fairies' coachmaker.' 

It is Queen Mab also who comes in a chariot drawn by flying mice to 
carr}' Tom Thumb to Fairyland (page 20), and of whom Hood tells us in 
the poem on page 65. These are the fays of whose gathering Drake gives 
so charming a description (page 109), and about whose winter hiding- 
places Bayly sings in musical verse (page 112). 

*' But there are bigger fairies, like those that figure in the stories of 
The Sleepi?ig Beauty, Pi'iiice Chei'ry, The Haunted Spring, and others in 
this book, as well as in many of the old French, Italian, and German 
romances. These seem much like ordinary mortals gifted with super- 
human powers. They are sometimes benevolent, and sometimes malig- 
nant. Sometimes they enter into marriages with human beings, like the 
famous French fairy Melusina, who married Raymond Count of Lusignan. 

*' Besides these two classes there are many others, including beings of 
varied size and shape, having their abode in earth, air, or water. Dwarfs 
and gnomes and kobolds haunt the woods or caves and mines ; nixies and 
kelpies inhabit the waters ; Ariel (page 67) and his kin are spirits of the 
air. The salamander of the middle ages was a fairy in human form whose 
home was in the fire. To describe all the beings of fair}^ mytholog}^ 
even briefly, would fill a volume. Many of the ways in which they were 
supposed to interfere in mortal affairs are seen in the tales here collected, 
and will be further illustrated in the notes tliat are to follow." 



The following are specimens of other notes on the same sub- 
ject : — 

'* Green jacket. Green seems to be the favorite color for fairy dress, 
though not the only one. The queen of the fairies clothes Tom Thumb 
in 'bright green' (page 22). In the Alerry Wives of Windsor {\\\ 4. 49) 
the fairies are * green and white.* " 

" They live on crispy pancakes, etc. Several writers assert that fairies 
do not eat ; but the only proof they cite is from Shakespeare's Cymbeline 
(iii. 6. 41), where Belarius, seeing Imogen in the cave, says : — 



70 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

** * But that it eats our victuals, I should think 
Here were a fairy.' 

But here either fairy is equivalent to spirit, or Belarius simply means 
that a fairy would not be likely to eat the ordinary food of human beings. 
Fairy literature abounds in references to their feasts ; as, for instance, in 
the old poem on page 30. Robin Goodfellow and beings like him are 
often described as doing work for a bowl of cream. Compare Milton's 
L' Allegro, loi : — 

" ' With stories told of many a feat, 
How fairy Mab the junkets eat. 
***** 
And he, by Friar's lantern led, 
Tell how the drudging goblin sweat 
To earn his cream-bowl duly set,' etc. 

In Keightley's Fairy Mythology, some of the titles of stories are * The 
Dwarf's Banquet ' (p. 128), ' Wedding-Feast of the Little People ' (p. 220), 
* The Fairy Banquet' (page 283), etc." 

" The old king. Fairies are often represented as old men or women, 
sometimes decrepit with age. See, for instance, page 73, line 127. They 
are also sometimes described as governed by a king instead of a queen." 

** They stole little Bridget. There is nothing more familiar in the fairy 
tales of different nations than the idea that the elves steal pretty babies 
and leave their own offspring instead. Oberon and Titania (page 34) 
quarrel about the possession of such a ' changeling.' Robin Goodfellow 
(page 52) confesses to similar thefts. See also Spenser's Faerie Queene, 
i. 10, 65 :— 

" ' From thence a Faery thee unweeting reft, 
There as thou slept in tender swadling band; 
And her base Elfin brood there for thee left : 
Such men do Chaungelings call, so chaung'd by Faeries theft.' 

John Gay, in his fable of The Mother, The Nurse, and the Fairy, repre- 
sents the nurse as calling the new-born babe a changeling because it is 

"* a shocking, awkward creature. 
That speaks a fool in every feature. 
Lord! Madam, what a squinting leer; 
No doubt the Fairy hath been here.' 

The poem continues thus : — 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 71 

" * Just as she spoke a pigmy sprite 

Pops through the keyhole, swift as light ; 
Perched on the cradle^s top he stands, 
And thus her folly reprimands: 
** Whence sprung the vain conceited lie, 
That we the world with fools supply? 
What! give our sprightly race away 
For the dull helpless sons of clay! 
Besides, by partial fondness shown, 
Like you, we dote upon our own. 
Where yet was ever found a mother 
Who M give her booby for another ? 
And should we change with human breed. 
Well might we pass for fools indeed." * 

Many amusing stories are told of the devices by which mothers manage 
to get back their own babies. Sometimes the fairies are frightened into 
restoring them. For instance, the oven is heated as if for baking, and 
the changeling is on the point of being put into it, when the elfin mother 
comes, in haste and fright, with the real child and takes away her own 
ugly brat. According to other tales, if the changeling can be made to 
laugh, it will be at once exchanged for the human infant. In a German 
stoiy the mother breaks an egg in two, and sets water to boil in each half. 
The imp bursts out laughing, and says, * Well, I am as old as the Wester- 
wald, but I never before saw anybody cooking in egg-shells !* Similar 
tales are found in Brittany, Ireland, and elsewhere." 

* * They thought that she was fast asleep. This may seem a little stupid 
on the part of the fairies, but so they are often represented. Besides, 
being immortal, they are not so familiar with death as human beings are. 
According to some of the stories, the children stolen by fairies could be 
made to share this immortality. Fletcher, in The Faithful Shepherdess^ 
describes 

" * A virtuous well, about whose flowery meads 
The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds 
By the pale moonshine, dipping oftentimes 
Their stolen children, so to make 'em free 
From dying flesh and dull mortality.' 

Virtuous here means powerful, or having magic virtue or power ; as in 
Milton's II Penseroso^ 113 : * the virtuous ring and glass,' etc." 

**^« old fairy tvho had never been invited. This incident is found in 
other fairy tales, and is as old as the Greek myth of the origin of the 
Trojan War in the dispute over the golden apple which Eris, the goddess 



72 



THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 



of discord, threw among the guests at the nuptials of Peleiis and Thetis 
because she had not been invited with the rest of the deities." 

*' ^ brownie. Described by Keightley, in his Fairy Mythology (p. 357), 
as * a personage of small stature, wrinkled visage, covered with short curly 
brown hair, and wearing a brown mantle or hood. His residence is the 
hollow of an old tree, a ruined castle, or the abode of man. He is at- 
tached to particular families, with whom he has been known to reside 
even for centuries, threshing the corn, cleaning the house,* etc. He likes 
a nice bowl- of cream or a piece of fresh honeycomb, left for him in a 
corner, but is strangely offended by a gift of clothing. When people 
have left a new coat or hood for him, he is said to have quit the house in 
disgust. The brownie is particularly associated with Scotland, though he 
figures in some English stories also. ** 

** There was no one left but me. In many tales about fairies they 
vanish when they discover that a mortal is looking at them ; and some- 
times the person is punished for the intrusion. According to some tradi- 
tions, certain persons can see fairies while others cannot. The four- 
leaved clover was said to confer the power of discerning them. But 7ne 
is not incorrect, but being here a preposition." 

^^ And as I named the Blessed Navie^ etc. In some cases the fairies are 
regarded as evil spirits, to whom anything sacred is repugnant. The sign 
of the cross, the utterance of a prayer, the touch of holy water, puts them 
to flight. It is only unbaptized babes that they can steal, or a Bible 
under the pillow protects the child. Other accounts represent them as 
wishing to have their children baptized and made Christians. An old 
English writer tells of some * green children ' near Bury St. Edmunds that 
Most their green hue, and were baptized, and learned English.' He 
adds that 'they said their country was called St. Martin's Land, as that 
saint was chiefly worshipped there ; that the people were Christians and 
had churches.' In Sweden, the Neck^ or water-elf, is described as anxious 
about his soul's redemption. Keightley says that the following story is 
told in all parts of Sweden : * Two boys were one time playing near a 
river that ran by their father's house. The Neck rose and sat on the sur- 
face of the water, and played on his harp ; but one of the children said to 
him, "What is the use. Neck, of your sitting there and playing? You 
will never be saved." The. Neck then began to weep bitterly, flung away 
his harp, and sank down to the bottom. The children went home and 
told the whole story to their father, who was the parish priest. He said 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 



73 



they were wrong to say so to the Neck, and desired them to go immedi- 
ately back to the river, and console him with the promise of salvation. 
They did so ; and when they came down to the river the Neck was sitting 
on the water weeping and lamenting. They then said to him, "Neck, 
do not grieve so ; our father says that your Redeemer liveth also." The 
Neck then took his harp, and played most sweetly until long after the sun 
was gone down.' In another form of this legend, a priest says to the 
Neck, ' Sooner will this cane which I hold in my hand grow flowers than 
thou shalt attain salvation.' The Neck in grief flung away his harp and 
wept, and the priest rode on. But soon his cane began to put forth 
leaves and blossoms, and he then went back to tell the glad tidings to the 
Neck, who now joyously played on his harp all the night.' 

*' Some stories of the opposite character are amusing. According to one 
of them, an elf carrying his treasure home lays it down beside the road to 
rest. Two straws accidentally fall upon it one across the other. The elf 
cannot pick it up now, and asks a man who comes along to remove the 
straws ; but the man is bright enough to understand the predicament, 
and, carefully taking up the rich load without disturbing the cross formed 
by the straws, goes off with it, to the great disgust and wrath of the help- 
less owner. 

**In the present instance, the green gnome is a human being who has 
been carried off to Fairyland, and whom the prayer of the maiden to 
* Him who died for men ' releases from the enchantment. Scott gives 
several similar tales in his introduction to The Young Tamlane in the 
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.'' 

To these notes on fairy mythology I will add only two or 
three of a different kind : — 

'''To all eternity. An example of hyperbole^ or highly exaggerated lan- 
guage. The word is from the Greek and means 'excess,' or literally a 
'throwing beyond.' It goes beyond the exact truth, often far beyond 
it ; but we generally see that it is figurative, not literal, and so are not 
deceived by it. "When a boy says, * It will take me forever to get this 
lesson,' and another replies, * I can get mine in less than no time,' 
there is no danger that they will misunderstand each other. It is a bad 
habit, however, to use hyperboles as often as many young people do. If 
we waste our strongest forms of speech on trivial subjects, they will seem 
4* 



74 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

weak and inexpressive when the occasion really requires them. Hyper- 
bole is common in the Bible. See, for instance, Matthew, xix. 24, xxiii. 
24, Luke, xix. 40, ^^, John^ iv. 29, Galaiians, iv. 15, etc. It is in keep- 
ing with the glowing Oriental style ; but with us it is considered out of 
place except in expressions of intense feeling." 

** These halcyon days. This is an example of 'classical allusion,' as it is 
called. We may learn that halcyon means 'peaceful, serene,' as the foot- 
note on page 120 tells us ; but we shall not fully appreciate the signifi- 
cance of the word unless we know the old classical* myth to which it al- 
ludes. Halcyone (Hal-si'o-ne) was the daughter of ^olus (E'o-lus), 
god of the winds, and became the wife of Ceyx (Se'ix), King of Thessaly. 
Her husband was shipwrecked and drowned ; and the gods, in pity for 
her deep grief at his loss, changed them both into the birds called king- 
fishers. During the days when these birds are brooding upon their float- 
ing nests, the sea is calm and smooth, the winds being kept in confine- 
ment by ^olus. There are many references to these * halcyon days ' in 
ancient and modern poetry. One of the most beautiful is in Milton's 
Hymn on the Nativity : — 

" * But peaceful was the night 
Wherein the Prince of Light 

His reign of peace upon the earth began ; 
The winds, with wonder whjst, 
Smoothly the waters kissed, 
-» Whispering new joys to the mild ocean, t 

Who now hath quite forgot to rave, 
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.' " 

* * The fury. This is another instance of * classical allusion ' (see on 
page 120, line 172). In the Greek mythology, the Furies were three 
goddesses that tormented guilty persons who escaped or defied human 
justice. Their heads were wreathed with serpents, and their whole ap- 
pearance was frightful. They were dreaded by both gods and men. 
Hence the name of Ftiry has become a metaphor for a woman of fierce 

* ^''Classical means * belonging to the first or highest class, especially in literature,' and 
is particularly applied to Greek and Roman authors. Classical learjiing commonly 
means a knowledge of Greek and Latin literature ; classical mythology is Greek and 
Roman mythology, etc." 

t '' Ocean is here a trisyllable, as the metre and rhyme require. In the time of Milton 
and Shakespeare, words with -e or -i followed by another vowel in the ending (like ocean^ 
patience, soldier, nation, etc.) were often thus lengthened in pronunciation." 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 75 

and malignant disposition, or one who, as here, gives way to a fit of 
insane anger." 

The Lambs' Tales from Shakespeare.— These are edited 
in two volumes : Tales from Shakespeare s Comedies (270 pages), 
and Tales from Shakespeare s Tragedies (240 pages). The plan 
of the editor, which exactly carries out the suggestions of the 
authors concerning the use of the Tales, is explained in the 
preface to the Comedies^ which I therefore quote in full : — 

'*In the preface to the first edition the authors say that these Tales 
* are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an introduction to the 
study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his words are used whenever it 
seemed possible to bring them in ; and in whatever has been added to 
give them the regular form of a connected story, diligent care has been 
taken to select such words as might least interrupt the effect of the beau- 
tiful English tongue in which he wrote ; therefore, words introduced into 
our language since his time have been as far as possible avoided. * 

** The authors say also : * It has been wished to make these Tales easy 
reading for very young children. To the utmost of their ability the 
writers have constantly kept this in mind ; but the subjects of most of 
them made this a very difficult task. It was no easy matter to give the 
histories of men and women in terms familiar to the apprehension of a 
very young mind. For young ladies, too, it has been the intention chiefly 
to write ; because boys being generally permitted the use of their fathers' 
libraries at a much earlier age than girls are, they frequently have the 
best scenes of Shakespeare by heart before their sisters are permitted to 
look into this manly book ; and, therefore, instead of recommending these 
Tales to the perusal of young gentlemen who can read them so much 
better in the originals, their kind assistance is rather requested in explain- 
ing to their sisters such parts as are hardest for them to understand ; and 
when they have helped them to get over the difficulties, then perhaps they 
will read to them (carefully selecting what is proper for a young sister's 
ear) some passage which has pleased them in one of these stories, in the 
very words of the scene from which it is taken ; and it is hoped they will 
find that the beautiful extracts, the select passages, they may choose to 
give their sisters in this way will be much better relished and understood 
from their having some notion of the general story.' 



76 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

' ' Nowadays ' young ladies ' are allowed to read and study Shakespeare 
as early as their brothers, and may sometimes be able to help the latter in 
understanding and appreciating the text more than these * young gentle- 
men * can help them. I quote the passage, however, because it has sug- 
gested to me the plan of the present edition of these admirable stories. I 
have aimed to help both girls and boys by ' explaining such parts as are 
hardest for them to understand ;' and have added a selection of such por- 
tions of the originals as are likely to be intelligible and enjoyable to 
young readers, and at the same time perfectly proper for even * a young 
sister's ear.* 

** I believe that the book, thus annotated and illustrated, will be useful 
not only as ' supplementary reading for young children ' (the teacher or 
the parent will of course see what portions of the notes are suited to their 
age and capacity), but also as an introduction to the study of Shakespeare 
for those who are old enough to begin that study in earnest. For this, as 
we have seen, the Tales were intended, but the authors builded better 
than they knew. The child's story-book has become ' an English classic ' 
for children of larger growth. Even as a contribution to Shakespearian 
criticism it has no mean value, as more than one good critic has pointed 
out. Mr. Ainger, in his introduction to the edition of 1878, referring to 
Mary Lamb's work on the Comedies, remarks: ' She constantly evinces a 
rare shrewdness and tact in her incidental criticisms, which show her to 
have been, in her way, as keen an observer of human nature as her 
brother. Mary Lamb had not lived so much among the wits and humor- 
ists of her day without learning some truths which helped her to interpret 
the two chief characters of Much Ado About Nothing : "As there is no 
one who so little likes to be made a jest of as those who are apt to take 
the same liberty themselves, so it was with Benedick and Beatrice ; these 
two sharp wits never met in former times but a perfect war of raillery 
was kept up between them, and they always parted mutually displeased 
with each other." And again : *' The hint she gave him that he was a 
coward, by saying she would eat all he had killed, he did not regard, 
knowing himself to be a brave man ; but there is nothing that great wits 
so much dread as the imputation of buffoonery, because the charge comes 
sometimes a little too near the truth ; tlierefore Benedick perfectly hated 
Beatrice when she called him * the prince's jester.' " How illuminating, 
in the best sense of the term, is such a commentary as this ! The knowl- 
edge of human character that it displays is indeed in advance of a child's 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 77 

own power of analysis or experience of the world, but it is at once intel- 
ligible when thus presented, and in a most true sense educative. Very 
profound, too, is the casual remark upon the conduct of Claudio and his 
friends when the character of Hero is suddenly blasted — conduct which 
has often perplexed older readers for its heartlessness and insane credu- 
lity : ** The prince and Claudio left the church, without staying to see if 
Hero would recover, or at all regarding the distress into which they had 
thrown Leonato. So hard-hearted had their anger made them.'' It is 
this casual and diffused method of enforcing the many moral lessons that 
lie in Shakespeare's plays that constitutes one special value of this little 
book in the training of the young. Writing avowedly, as Charles and 
Mary Lamb were writing, for readers still in the schoolroom, ordinary 
compilers would have been tempted to make these little stories sermons 
in disguise, or to have appended to them in set form the lessons they were 
calculated to teach. Happily, both as moralist and artist, Charles Lamb 
knew better how hearts and spirits are touched to " fine issues." * 

** This preface is already longer than I intended to make it, but I can- 
not refrain from adding to it the closing paragraph of the original pref- 
ace : — 

*' * What these tales shall have been to the young readers, that and 
much more it is the writers' wish that the true Plays of Shakespeare may 
prove to them in older years — enrichers of the fancy, strengtheners of vir- 
tue, a w^ithdrawing from all selfish and mercenary thoughts, a lesson of 
all sweet and honorable thoughts and actions, to teach courtesy, benig- 
nity, generosity, humanity ; for of examples teaching these virtues his 
pages are full.' " 

The following is a portion of the preface to the Tales fro?n 
the Tragedies : — 

*' The child's story-book has become * an English classic* for children 
of larger growth, and is really a valuable contribution to Shakespearian 
criticism. In the former preface I quoted what Mr. Ainger says of * the 
rare shrewdness and tact ' of Mary Lamb's incidental criticisms of the 
Comedies. I may add here what he says of her brother's work on the 
Tragedies :— 

** ' It is in the Tragedies, and in the profounder problems of human life 
there treated, that the master-hand of Charles Lamb distinctly declares 



78 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

itself. The subtle intellect and unerring taste that have elsewhere an- 
alyzed for us the characters of Lear and Malvolio are no less visible even 
w^hen adapting Shakespeare's stories to the intelligence of the least critical 
of students. It vi^ould be difficult, in writing for any class of readers, to 
add anything to Lamb's description of Polonius — *'a man grown old in 
crooked maxims and policies of state, who delighted to get at the knowl- 
edge of matters in an indirect and cunning way." Again, the connection 
between the actual and the assumed madness of Hamlet — still so vexed a 
question among amateur critics — is, after all, explained and exhausted in 
the following simple version : *' The terror which the sight of the ghost 
had left upon the senses of Hamlet, he being weak and dispirited before, 
almost unhinged his mind and drove him beside his reason. And he, 
fearing that it would continue to have this effect, which might subject 
him to observation and set his uncle upon his guard if he suspected that 
he was meditating anything against him or that Hamlet really knew more 
of his father's death than he professed, took up a strange resolution from 
that time to counterfeit as if he were really and truly mad ; thinking that 
he would be less an object of suspicion when his uncle should believe him 
incapable of any serious project, and that his real perturbation of mind 
would be best covered and pass concealed under a disguise of pretended 
lunacy." And nothing can be finer in its way than the concluding sen- 
tences of Lamb's version of Romeo and Juliet^ where he relates the recon- 
ciliation of Lords Capulet and Montague over the graves of the unhappy 
lovers : " So did these poor old lords, when it was too late, strive to outdo 
each other in mutual courtesies." How exquisitely in the two epithets is 
the moral of the whole tragedy thrown into sudden light ! The melan- 
choly of the whole story — the "pity of it " — the *' one long sigh " which 
Schlegel heard in it, is conveyed with an almost magic suddenness in this 
single touch ; with yet one touch more, and that of priceless importance 
— the suggestion of the whole world of misery and disorder that may lie 
hidden as an awful possibility in the tempers and vanities of even two 
" poor old " heads of houses.' " 

In the notes, the selection of passages from the plays, besides 
carrying out the authors' suggestions for the reading of such 
passages in connection with the Tales, illustrates their frequent 
use of the precise language of the plays in telling the story. 
Historical and other allusions in the Tales and in the illustrative 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 79 

quotations are also explained, with the peculiarities of Shake- 
speare's diction and grammar which occur in the latter ; and 
rhetorical and other notes, such as I have already quoted from 
the earlier volumes of the series, are interspersed. 

A few of the notes may be cited here as specimens : — 

* * / am a fool to weep at what I am glad of. This is taken word for 
word from the play ; and so is the last sentence of the speech, ' I am your 
wife,' etc. * Plain and holy innocence ' is also Shakespeare's." 

" My brave spirit. The word brave was formerly in very common use 
as a term of praise or commendation. Miranda, in the play, calls the 
ship that was wrecked ' a brave vessel' (the ''fine large ship* of page 3, 
line 50) ; and elsewhere Miranda says that Ferdinand has ' a brave form ;' 
and she herself is referred to as a ' brave lass ' (a beautiful girl). See also 
page 14, line 369. So the noun bravery meant beauty, elegance, etc. 
Compare Isaiah, iii. 18 : ' the bravery of their tinkling ornaments ;' and 
Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew^ iv. 3. 57 : * With scarfs and fans and 
double change of bravery ;' that is, a double set of fine garments or orna- 
ments." 

" Full fathom five. That is, at a depth of fully five fathoms, or thirty 
feet. Fathom is used as a plural, like year in the passage quoted in note 
on page 3, line 65. Foot^ mile^ pound., and other words meaning measure, 
weight, time, etc., were similarly employed as plurals. We still speak of 
a ten- foot pole, a two-pound weight, etc." 

" Of his bones are coral made. Bones cannot be turned into coral, nor 
eyes into pearls, but the matter of animals and plants that have died and 
decayed does in the course of time reappear in new forms of life and 
beauty." 

^^ An excellent sweet lady and exceeding wise. Both excellent and ex- 
ceeding are adverbs here, as often in Shakespeare, from whom these ex- 
amples are taken. It might be thought that excellent was an adjective 
('an excellent, sweet lady'); but a comparison with other passages in 
Shakespeare proves the contrary. W^e often find it used by itself as an 
adverb ; as in 'Thou didst it excellent' {Taming of the Shretv, ind. i. 
89) ; and joined with another adverb ; as * excellent well' {Othello, ii. 3. 
121), etc." 

^' Now begin, etc. This is from the play, where it is arranged thus 
(iii. I. 24) :— 



8o THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

" * Now begin ; 
For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs 
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.' 

Here we have another simile. Beatrice is compared to a lapwing, a bird 
common in England, but not known in this country, somewhat like our 
plover. Its nest is made on the ground, and old writers have many al- 
lusions to its endeavors to mislead persons who might steal the eggs, 
which are much sought for food. Yarrell, in his History of British Birds^ 
says : ' The female birds invariably, upon being disturbed, run from the 
eggs, and then fly near to the ground for a short distance, without utter- 
ing any alarm cry.' " 

^^ Borachio. If this were the Italian form of the name, ch should be 
pronounced like k ; but, like Petruchio (in the Taniing of the Shrew) 
and certain other names, it is Anglicized (made English, or put into an 
English form) in order to suggest the proper pronounciation. The Italian 
form would be Boraccio (pronounced Bo-ra'chi-o). " 

''What shall become of this? These are Shakespeare's words. We 
should now say, * What will come of this ?' that is, what will be the result 
of it? The reply of the friar is condensed from the play, with little 
change in the language. There is one alteration worth noting. For * in- 
terest in his heaj't' the play has 'interest in his liver;' and there are 
many passages in Shakespeare (see quotation on p. 210) and other old 
writers in which the liver is represented as the seat of love. The idea 
was a very ancient one, being found in Greek and Latin literature." 

''^By my sword. The sword was often used in swearing because the 
hilt was in the form of a cross, and sometimes had a cross inscribed upon 
it. Compare Hamlet (i. 5) where Hamlet makes his friends swear upon 
his sword that they will say nothing about the visit of his father's ghost." 

* * A proper sayiftg ! That is, an improper or false saying. This is an 
example of that form of figurative language called irony. The meaning 
is the opposite of that which the words naturally or literally express. 
The tone in which they are spoken, or the connection in which they are 
used, makes the real meaning clear. Irony is seldom used except for 
conveying blame or censure under the form of praise." 

'* Yet sofne sweet uses are to be extracted from it. This is taken from a 
famous and beautiful passage in the play (ii. i. 22) : — 

** * Sweet are the uses of adversity. 

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 8 1 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head ; 
And this our life, exempt from public haunt. 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks. 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.' 

"It was commonly believed in Shakespeare's time that toads were 
venomous, and also that they had this * precious jewel,' or * toadstone,' in 
their heads. The stone was said to be beautiful, and also to have certain 
medicinal properties. Its virtues are set forth by many learned writers of 
the 1 6th and 17th centuries." 

*''' Proteus. This was the name of a sea-god, a son of Neptune, who 
was noted for his power of changing his shape at will. Hence, our word 
Protean^ which is applied to persons or things that readily assume differ- 
ent forms or characters. Very likely Shakespeare chose the name as 
peculiarly appropriate to the fickle Proteus. The name may be pro- 
nounced as directed in the foot-note on page 74, or, after the Greek fash- 
ion, as a dissyllable (Pro'teus), like Theseus (see on page 18, line 14)." 

** The Rialto. This is the name of one of the islands on which Venice 
was built ; and here in Shakespeare's time was the Exchange^ the build- 
ing where the merchants were accustomed to meet for transacting busi- 
ness. The famous Rialto Bridge connects this island with St. Mark's 
Island, which afterwards became the commercial centre of the city. The 
bridge was begun in 1588 and finished in 1591, and until a few years ago 
it was the only bridge across the Grand Canal^ the longest and widest of 
the many canals in Venice." 

^^ Lady^ it is about a paltry gilt ring^ etc. In the play it is called a 
* paltry * ring, not because it was merely * gilt,' as it is called here, but 
because Gratiano thinks it is not worth making such a fuss about. 
He says : — 

" * About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring 
That she did give me, whose poesy was 
For all the world like cutler's poetry 
Upon a knife, "Love me, and leave me not."' 

^\iQ. poesy ox posy (for the two words are the same) was a motto or rhyme 
inscribed on the inside. Such inscriptions were also sometimes put upon 
knives and other articles used as presents. In 1624 a little book was 
published with the title, Lovers Garland, or Posies for Rings, Haridker- 
c kiefs and Gloves ; and such pretty tokens that lovers send their loves. 
The Rev. Giles Moore, in his Journal, 1673-4, writes : * I bought for 



82 THE ELEMENTARY STUDY OF ENGLISH 

Ann Brett a gold ring, this being the posy : When this you see^ remember 
me: " 

* * Spinsters. The word is here used in its original sense. The suffix 
'Ster was originally feminine. Thus songster used to mean a female 
singer, but now it is regarded as masculine, and a new feminine ending is 
added in songstress. So webster (now used only as a proper name) meant 
a female weaver, baxter (formerly bakester) a female baker, brewster a 
female brewer, etc. Spinster is the only one of these old feminines that 
retains its proper gender." 

* * Made him that he could say nothing. The construction is old-fash- 
ioned and seems awkward now. We should rather say * made him unable 
to say anything,' or 'affected him so that he could say nothing.* The 
verb make was formerly used in many constructions that are now obsolete. 
Compare, for instance, page 159, line 282 : * He then made as if he were 
going back ;' that is, pretended that he was going back." 

**^ poor Bedlam-beggar. That is, an insane beggar. The word Bed- 
lam is a corruption of Bethlehem, The old hospital of St. Mary of Beth- 
lehem in London, founded in the 13th century, was converted into a 
lunatic asylum, which came to be popularly known as Bedlam.'' 

^'' How he demeaned himself. How he behaved. The word demean 
is connected with demeanor, not with mean (base), as has been popularly 
supposed. The mistake has led to its being used in the sense of * debase, 
degrade.' Webster's Dictionary recognizes this meaning, and quotes in 
illustration the Comedy of Errors, iv. 3. 83 : — 

" * Now, out of doubt, Antipholus is mad, 
Else never would he so demean himself;' 

where, as elsewhere in Shakespeare, it means * behave. ' The Century 
Dictionary says of this * misuse of demean ' that it is * avoided by scrupu- 
lous writers.' " 

** A heart that even cracks with woe. The word cracks here seems al- 
most ridiculously weak, but Shakespeare often uses it with reference to a 
breaking heart. Compare King John, v. 7. 52 : * The tackle of my heart 
is crack'd ;' Hamlet, v. 2. 370 : * Now cracks a noble heart ;* Coriolanus, 
V. 3. 9 : * with a crack'd heart,* etc. It will be seen that Lamb follows 
the play in this instance." 

** The rough and unbending cynic. The Cynics were a set of Greek 
philosophers who taught that pleasure is an evil if sought for its own 



ENGLISH CLASSICS FOR SCHOOL READING 83 

sake. Hence they contemned wealth and amusements. The name is 
derived from the Greek word for dog^ and was generally understood to 
refer to ' the coarse mode of life or the surly disposition of these philoso- 
phers.' It has come to be applied to persons like these old Cynics, and 
especially to sneering fault-finders. In the present passage it is well ex- 
plained by the context." 



THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 

(From Fairy Tales) 




ABBOTS FORD 

(From Tales of Chivalry) 



IN DEX 



aboard, 27. 
a-building, etc., 65. 
alliteration, 66. 
allusion, classical, 74. 
allusion, Scriptural, 24, 
amain, 66, 
an (=if), 35. 
and ^superfluous), 38. 
Angleland, 58. 
Anglo-Saxon, 34, 57, 58. 
animal metaphors, 25. 
armor of proof, 29. 
armor, weight of, 43. 
assay (of food), 66. 
atomies, 68. 
augmentatives, 30. 
awaits (in Gray's Elegy), 39. 

ballad poetry, 63. 

baxter. 82. 

Beaulieu, 30. 

Bedlam-beggar, 82. 

beest, 35. 

become (=come), 80. 

Belvoir, 31. 

best, we were, 33. 

board (meanings), 27. 

Borachio (pronunciation), 80. 

brave, 79. 

brewster, 82. 

brownies, 72. 

but (preposition), 72. 

Celtic race, 57. 

changelings, fairy, 70. 

cheer, 28. 

classical, 74. 

contrary (accent), 40. 

correspondence of sound and sense, i8. 

crack (of heart), 82. 

criticism, training in, 10, 21, 25. 

cuts, lessons on, 46. 

Cynics, 82. 

Dead Sea, the, 43. 
demean (—behave), 82. 
diminutives, 30. 
dramatic form in ballads, 69. 



drap-de-5nre, 30. 
Druidism, 42. 

Elmo, Saint, 66. 
English, history of; 6, 58. 
English literature, 7. 
English, speaking, 3. 
English, writing. 4. 
exceeding (adverb), 79. 
excellent (adverb), 79. 
exclamation, 17. 
eyne, 66. 

fairy food, 69. 
fairy mythology, 68. 
fathom (plural), 79. 
figurative language, 11, 22, 26. 
French and Saxon, 34. 
French, Norman, 35, 58. 
Furies, the, 74. 

Gaul, the, 17. 
grammar, errors in, 36. 
grammar, obsolete forms in, 31. 
grammar, technical, 4. 
grammar text-books, 6. 
green (fairy color), 69, 

halcyon days, 74. 

hanging, drawing, and quartering, 

history and poetry, 54. 

history in Shakespeare, 53. 

history, Macaulay on^ 53. 

history, teaching of, 50. 

hyperbole, 73. 

iambic measure, 64. 

iland, 46. 
irony, 80. 
islet, 30. 

Keltic race, 57. 
kindly (^natural), 66. 

lapwing (figurative). 80. 
liver (seat of love), 80. 
Lochiell, 67. 
lubbard, 30. 



43. 



86 



INDEX 



Mab, Queen, 68. 

Macaulay's Lays^ 52. 

make (old uses), 82. 

may (= white hawthorn), 46. 

me (reflexive), 34. 

metaphor, 15, 22, 24, 25. 

metonymy, 29. 

metre, 11, 40. 

mettled, 28. 

minion, 29. 

minstrels, 63. 

Miserere^ the, 65. 

mythology, 68. 

Neck (water-elf), 72. 
news (number), 66. 
nouns, participial, 31, 
nouns, verbal, 31, 65. 

ocean (trisyllable), 74. 
on fire, etc., 65. 

poesy (=posy), 81. 

poetry and history, 51. 

posies in rings, 81. 

possessive, apostrophe omitted, 45. 

proof (of armor), 29. 

proper (ironical), 80. 

Proteus, 81. 

questions, variety in, 16. 

recks, 28. 

Red-cross knight, 44. 

rede, 66. 

Regnar Lodbrog, 20. 

rhetoric, training in, 11. 

rhyme, 41. 

Rialto, the, 8r. 

Robin Goodfellow, 70. 



Saint Elmo's lights, 65. 
simile, 16, 22, 25, 80. 
skeely, 64. 
skipper (accent), 64. 
songster (feminine), 82. 
sound and sense, 18. 
spelling, old, 45. 
spinners (=spiders), 68. 
spinster, 82. 
strength (concrete), 29. 
subject, inversion of, 39. 
subject omitted, 33. 
sword, swearing by, 80. 

taking the assay, 66. 
taste, cultivation of, 9. 
taster (officer), 66. 
thou (to inferiors), 36. 
to (=:for), 29. 
toadstone, 81. 
towery strand, 44. 

up and spake, 64. 

Vallombrosa, 66. 
verbal nouns, 31, 65. 
versification, n, 40. 
virtuous (= powerful), 71. 
vulgarisms (once good English), 3^6. 

Webster, 82. 

we were best, 33. 

which (=:who), 31, 36. 

who (=which), 31, 36. 

will (wrongly used), 38. 

with (=by), 68. 

words, Anglo-Saxon, 35, 59. 

words, classes of, 27. 

words with no rhyme, 41. 




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